


Barricade's Community Service-Requiem For Barricade

by serindarkwolf09



Series: SD's Transformers Community Service [1]
Category: Transformers (Bay Movies)
Genre: Attempted Murder, Dysfunctional Family, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, F/M, Family Issues, Friendship/Love, Implied Sexual Content, Implied/Referenced Drug Use, some strong language
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-07-23
Updated: 2014-07-23
Packaged: 2018-02-10 04:16:11
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 8
Words: 25,456
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2010633
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/serindarkwolf09/pseuds/serindarkwolf09
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Barricade's community service deals with being involved with not only police work but with the Hepherr family. What can a Con do?</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Starter

**Author's Note:**

> This side story does take place during Serin Darkwolf's Transformers The Day That Never Comes

Before coming to this place, if someone would have told him that he would be parked outside of a small house in a somewhat nice neighborhood, waiting for a ridiculous organic he was forced to call a partner, he would have shot them in the face and laugh it off.

But here he was, doing all of that.

Never in his life, all two million, two hundred and twelve years of it, one of the roughest warriors, not to mention one of the fastest beings on wheels, would have never guessed he would be in this mess.

Forced to be partnered with a squishy organic no bigger than his servo.

Barricade, Commander of the Race Track Patrol, a front line officer, was stuck in a drive way, grumbling as he listened to the racket inside the organic made building. Okay, so it wasn't exactly an organic building. It was made out of wood, metal and something he was still trying to figure out the skematics to, plaster.

As of now, he was listening to the bickering and arguing of the two femmes, Kris and her teenage daughter, Kylee.

"I don't see why I am being punished! I didn't have anything to do with those drugs, mom!" Kylee yelled as she followed her mother outside with the youngest Hepherr, Jake in toll.

Kris sighed as she adjusted her gun belt around her waist, leading her kids to the awaiting patrol car in the drive way. She did not want to argue with her teenage daughter right now. "Kylee, we have gone over this five times now! You have been suspended from school for drug possession and I am not letting you stay home by yourself so you can do god knows what! You are coming to the department so you can be watched!" She said loudly as she walked right up to the car, which the back door opened on its own. She jumped for a second before heaving a sigh and shaking her head as she motioned to Jake to get in. "Morning, Barricade. I keep forgetting you are my car."

"Hmph. I am not a car, fleshy. I am a Decepticon warrior who is forced to serve as your partner in this pitforsaken community service slag." Barricade rumbled. "And if we don't hurry it up, I am going to get another two hour long lecture by that stick in the aftpipe Autobot, Prowl about the subtle subject of time management. Again!"

Kris lightly slapped his roof as she closed the door behind Jake. "Behave, you. It is only the second day." She warned before looking at Kylee, who refused to move any closer to the Decepticon. "Kylee, get in." She said in an even dangerous tone.

Kylee groaned, stomped a foot before moving to do what she ws told. "I still don't see why I have to go to jail!" She groaned.

From behind, Jake leaned forward to the cage. "Hey, at least you're riding up front. Every time I go to school, the kids always what did I do now to be in the back of a cop car." He sad dryly.

Kylee turned around and slapped the cage hard to make Jake flinch back in his seat. "Shut up, cretin! This is all your fault! I took the drugs from you!" She snapped.

"Did not." Jake mumbled miserably.

"Hey! Knock it off!" Kris said as she climbed into the driver seat. She gave both kids a warning look when they started protesting. She kept it up until they stayed silent before looking at the dash board. "Barricade, we need to drop Jake..." she was saying.

"Yeah, yeah. Drop the kid off at go get lectured by the Autobot and that pain in the aft, Soyndwave." Barrcade grumbled before he reversed fast and then ptiched forward while Kris was yelling at him to slow down.

It was not long at all when Barricade pulled up to the school for Jake. He had been listening to the bantering of the family he was forced to look after, choosing not to get into it. He didn't mind Jake so much. The kid was mostly quiet when he wasn't asking a million questions about the Decepticon, which Barricade wouldn't answer.

Jake started getting out but paused when his mother tirned to him. "Jake, if any one gives you any trouble today..." Kris was saying.

Rolling his eyes, Jake nodded. "I know, mom. Call you and you will come take care of it." He said wearily.

Kris nodded before smiling at him. "Have a good day at school, okay, baby?" She told him.

Jake smiled back and nodded. "Okay. Love you, mom. Be safe." He looked at the dash board. "Bye, Barricade. Keep mom safe, okay?" He said.

"No promises if she keeps jumping out whenever we chase fleshies around." Barricade grumbled.

Jake laughed before patting the Saleen's side. "You can do it. I have faith in you. You're a good boy." He said before closing the door and starting to jog away.

"What am I, a dog?!" Barricade growled after him.

Jake laughed shaking his head as he turned around, still jogging backwards. "No! You are my friend!" He called back.

Barricade nearly stalled himself from being surprised like that. He hadn't been expecting those words coming out of the boy's mouth. He watched the kid as he rushed to the doors of the school, only to pause when a few older boys blocked hos way. The Decepticon narrowed his hidden optics ashe watched Jake faulter and cringe back. The boys had surrounded him and seemed to be picking on him until an adult showed up.

But it was enough for Barricade to figure out that Jake was being bullied at school.

Frowning deeply to himself, Barricade glanced into his cab to see if Kris had seen, but she was busy arguing with Kylee. So she hadn't figured it out.

'Ah, it isn't my problem to deal with. Kid needs to stand up on himself.' Barricade thought, though, he still didn't like it that the kid was getting bullied. He didn't think any more on it as he began driving on.

"Therefore, the stability of time management is very important to address because it is unprofessional that you were..." Prowl was lecturing.

"Oh, shut up, you dumbaft! It wasn't me who was taking too damn long on getting out of the damn house!" Barricade growled loudly.

He had been right. As soon as he brought Kris and Kylee to the police station, Barricade had found himself being lectured by Prowl by the subtle subject of time management and not arriving on time for work to start. He endured only forty minutes of it before flipping out.

"Barricade, I am only..." Prowl was saying in irritation.

"I know how to be a fragging cop, Autostick! I am just as efficient as you! Just because I don't act like I have a pole stuck up my aft doesn't mean I can't do the job! It was not my fault that I am late, got that?!" Barricade growled.

"Barricade..." Soundwave spoke up warningly.

"No, he's right." Kris suddenly spoke up in Barricade's defense making all look at her in question. She had been arguing with the chief, herself, about her lateness but hearing Barricade getting lectured and trying to defend himself, she had to say something. "Barry's late because of me. I was arguing with Kylee this morning and lost track of time. He was up and ready to go but couldn't because he was waiting for us. So it is my fault."

For a moment, there was only a surprised silence before Prowl nodded. "All right. Then we will drop it at that." He said firmly.

Barricade stared at Kris for a moment, startled that she actually stood him. He had nver had anyone do that for him before.

"All right, Kris. This is what we have for you today. We have..." The chief started to saying.

Kris turned to him, frowning. "If it is watching the Strip for speeders again, I will start screaming. Give me something else, Birns." She said in a pushy tone.

Chief Birnbraum gave her a rather dry look for her nickname of him. "Don't call me Birns, Kris. And no, you can't have a case. The last time you had one, things got messy. You and your partner..." he was saying.

"Jim Longworth, Birns. Just say his damn name. Just because he did something stupid doesn't mean you can't say his name." Kris said irritably.

Chief Birnbraum gave her another dry look. He was not amused by that statement whatsoever. "He is not the only one who has done something stupid, Kris." He said dryly before pointing at her when she glared at him. "West Strip, Kris. You and Barricade will take the West Strip. And I don't want to hear any more on it. If I do, you will be doing desk work for the rest of the week."

Kris glared hard at him before she made an aggravated sound and stomped away from him, towards Barricade, muttering angrily about Birnbraum.

"Mom! What about me? You are not going to leave me here, are you?" Kylee called over to where she was sitting on the stairs.

Glancing over at her daughter, Kris frowned but nodded as she looked at the chief. "Give Kylee something to do, will you? Make sure she doesn't leave. At all." She said firmly.

"Mom! Are you serious?!" Kylee screeched.

Chief Birnbraum just nodded as he ignored Kylee just as Kris was. "She can hang out with Greg and his crew. Just as long as she doesn't get in the way of their jobs. Or annoy Soundwave." He remarked.

Barricade snorted as he rolled his hidden optics. "Trust me. It takes a lot to annoy him. He is the most patient mech I know. Just not with me." He sneered in the huge Decepticon's direction, who merely ignored him.

"You have got to be kidding me!"

Again, everyone ignored Kylee.

Kris made her way towards Barricade, still grumbling about their job assignment. She didn't have to be told that her 'partner' was doing the same. She knew that neither one of them were looking forward to another extremely boring day of doing the same thing over and over again.


	2. Case One

It was another boring day of the same old thing. Barricade was grumbling as he rolled down the street with Kris grumbling in his passenger seat, both moody with having to watch for speeders. Both of them wanted to be doing something more productive and exciting.

But nooooo! They had to do this assignment.

"So..." Kris started to say, trying to strike up a conversation. She was getting restless with the silence and she did have a few questions she wanted to ask. "So..."

"What?" Barricade ground his engine, knowing something was on her mind.

Kris shrugged, figuring it was time to ask. "Do you have any relatives? Brothers, sisters, mom, dad?" She asked lightly.

Barricade was silent for a long moment before he ground his engine again. "No. I was sparked like everyone else was. By the Well of All Sparks, back on Cybertronian. Basically manufactured and given life by the All Spark." He said in a low voice.

Frowning, Kris caught wind of a really big "but" in his tone. "So, you are all alone? By yourself? No family?" She asked in hesitance.

"..." Barricade paused but then sighed heavily. "Not any more. I had a spark sister once. She was sparked from the same Spark energy as me." He muttered.

"Really? What was her name? What was she like?" Kris pried.

There was a pause.

But then Barricade heaved a deep sigh from his vents, allowing hot air to blow on Kris. "Nightshade. She was an Autobot, taken in by a mech called Alpha Trion when he found her on the streets of Praxus, our home town. He found her while I was out...erm...doing other things. She was a sweet sparkling and I didn't know what happened to her for a long time. I thought...erm...something happened to her." He sad being careful.

"What did you do?" Kris asked frowning, picking up on his hesitance right away.

Barricade grumbled but answered. "I was a part of a gang at the time, trying to earn energon for us. We did some things that earned us spots on Cybertron's Most Wanted list."

Kris' eyes lit up. "You mean, you were a criminal?" She asked slowly.

Barricade would have nodded if he could. "Sure, whatever. We had to do what we could to survive. Cybertron, I guess, isn't that much different from Earth. At that time, there was some pretty nasty cases of oppression going on. We were apart of castes, which are groups much like your classes. Low class, Middle class and High class. Low classes were considered poor and wretechful. Point is, we stole energon to survive and even to sell. We sometimes beat the slag out of other gangs who wandered onto our turf. But most of the time we just raced. I was a runner for the gang. And the fastest damn being on wheels. Still am, really."

"Street racing? Wow. That must have been exciting." Kris said, sounding really interested.

"Yeah, it was a lot of fun. Racing about in the under bellies of Cybertron." Barricade said with a chuckle. "It wasn't always a pleasure though. Street racing was just like the ones you have here. It was illegal cause the Cybertronian Council didn't like mechs or femmes faster than them. It was pretty dangerous too. Didn't help that some racers didn't know how to drive in a straight line and would end up crashing into bots. Cybers did get hurt a lot back then." He stated.

Kris folded her arms and leaned back against Barricade's door, staring at his slowly moving steering wheel. "So...what happened to Nightshade? She still out in space somewhere?" She asked, interested into knowing.

There was an awkward pause and Kris got the feeling she asked something she shouldn't have.

"Night? She is...she is deactivated. She was murdered by some glitch named Blackarchnia on another planet while doing some mission for the Autobots." Barricade answered.

Kris gasped and covered her mouth. "Oh, my god! I am so sorry! I shouldn't have...!" She was saying.

"Don't worry about it. It happened a long time ago, during our war with the Autobots." Barricade grumbled. "Nightshade wasn't exactly thrilled about me being with the Decepticons as it was. When we met back up, vorns after we joined our fractions, she gave me a good smack down for serving Megatron. I wouldn't hit her back though. Never would've laid a servos on her if I could help it." He stated.

Smiling, Kris liked that answer. She was definitely seeing a side to Barricade that not many probably didn't see at all. And she had to say, she liked him. "So...do you have a human form too? Like Prowl?" She asked tilting her head.

Barricade paused before something flickered in the driver's seat and there was a man sitting next to Kris. "Of course I do. All Cybertronians have one." He stated.

Kris studied the hologram for a moment then grimaced. She was not impressed with the simple tall, thin man with a hard face and a bushy mustache. "That does not suit you at all. I couldn't see you looking like that." She remarked.

Barricade gave her a dull look but shook his head. "It is a basic look. I really don't care for the look of humans. To me, they look all the same." He said dryly.

Frowning, Kris didn't look impressed with that one. She was getting the idea he was just being insulting. "And what is that supposed to mean?" She asked warningly.

The only answer Barricade was a smirk and a shake of his head. It was going to be fun teasing humans. That was for sure.

Just as Kris was

"All responding police units, we have gunshots going on the Southside of the Strip and a hostage was taken. Repeat, there is gunfire on the Southside of the Strip in front of The Lockjaw Casino and a hostage has been taken. All units respond."

Barricade and Kris looked at one another then a grin spread out right on their faces as they nodded.

Immediately Barricade slammed on his brakes and did a fast circle and sped down the road into the next lane. "Barricade responding. Officer Hepherr and I are on route! We will be there in exactly one minute." He sent the transmission.

"Copy that, Barricade. What is your exact position?" Came the reply of a man.

"I don't know. West Strip, I guess. State street." Barricade grumbled.

"Wh-what?! That is clear across the city! It will take a half an hour through the traffic!"

Barricade snorted loudly as he picked up speed, flying by the cars that were next to him. He heard Kris suck in a breath as the outside became a blur. "Hey, guess what? I am a Cybertronian, human. And I am the fastest on wheels. And another thing." He paused as he slammed on his brakes, swerving to a complete stop just he heard gunfire. "We are already here." He finished.

Kris gave a wobbly breath as she tried to compose herself. She had never driven that fast or drove that insane in her life and she never wanted to again. "Don't ever do that again." She said rather shakily.

"Awwwww. Poor human. Did you not like that?" Barricade cooed sarcastically.

Giving the dash board a sour look, Kris unlatched her gun holster and hurried to opening the door, only to be met by the sound of gunfire. She ducked behind Barricade and carefully peered over his hood to observe the situation.

There were only a few police units in the area, right outside the casino, The Lockjaw Casino. Some of them weren't even firing their guns but kept them trained on the one doing the shooting. It was a man hidden behind a steel sign with another trapped firmly in his arms, used as a shield. The violator was shooting at the casino, itself while keeping the hostage in the way of the police guns.

"Kris!"

Kris turned to see Steven Perry and Prowl sitting not too far from them, both human and holoform with their guns drawn.

Steven ducked low and hurried over to where Kris was ducked behind Barricade. He joined her to behind the Cybertronian, protected from any stray bullets.

"Steven! What the hell is going on?!" Kris yelled over the gunfire.

Steven shook his head as he glanced over Barricade. "Some guy went into the casino and started shooting it up! He has taken the head hauncho of the casino hostage! That man, the hostage is Dirge Xander! You have heard of him. Who hasn't? Apparently he did something to the shooter to pissing him off! Been yelling something about it was Xander's fault that someone close to him was dead! We are having Greg and his crew running background checks to finding out what is going on!" He yelled over the gunfire.

Kris nodded as she kept low. She looked over Barricade's hood again, pausing to see that her 'partner's' holoform was looking over at Prowl's. She could see both of their eyes were flashing red and blue and she put the pieces together that they were talking.

After a moment, Barricade looked over at her. "Hey, Hepherr. Soundwave's already got the intel. According to him, the shooter is Douglas Deacon and his kid is the one dead. Apparently the kid got into drugs and it killed him. The fleshy is blaming the other fleshy for it. But there isn't anything on this Dirge Xander saying he is into drug dealing. He does have some pretty slaggy criminal records though. He has done some brig time for concealed weapons and DUIs as well s a few domestic violence cases. I don't like the looks of this human. He seems pretty dangerous. Even with a few pretty good looking charity cases." He explained.

Kris and Steven frowned as they looked at each other. They didn't like this. They knew the rep on Dirge Xander. He did have some pretty nasty rumors swarming him. If they were given a choice, they would just let Deacon shoot him. But they had a job to do and that was protecting civilians.

Making her decision, Kris got to her feet, yet kept crouched down. "Hey! Douglas Deacon!" She yelled.

The gunfire ceased, clearly showing she had his attention.

"This is Officer Kris Hepherr with the Las Vegas Police! Throw down your weapon ad release your hostage! We can talk about this like civilized grownups!" Kris yelled as she stood a little straighter.

There was a pause before Deacon scoffed loudly. "Bull shit! The time for talk is over! This son of a bitch killed my son! It's his fault that my boy is dead! And now! I am going to send him to Hell right where he belongs!" He yelled back before jabbing his gun under Xander's chin.

"Deacon, no! Don't do that! Let's talk about this! Do not pull that trigger! Think about it! Would your son want you to do this?! Kill an innocent man in cold blood?!" Steven yelled next.

"Wrong choice of words, human." Barricade muttered.

"INNOCENT?! THIS SCUMBAG ISN'T INNOCENT! MY BOY WAS INNOCENT AND THIS FUCKER KILLED HIM! AAND NOW HE IS GOING TO PAY FOR WHAT HE DID TO MY BOY!" Douglas Deacon yelled before starting to pull the trigger.

Suddenly there was a gunshot, making all jump as they watched the shooter and his victim jump forward before falling to the ground.

Dirge Xander scrambled to get loose, proving that it was Deacon who had been shot. He moved to get away from his offender as fast as he could just as Kris, Steven and a few of the other police officers rushed forward. They tensed up when they saw two men in black suits running forward, both with guns in their hands.

"Freeze! Drop the weapon!" Kris yelled as she pointed her gun at them, right with Steven.

The two obvious body guards halted immediately, raising hands and dropping their guns at their feet. "Hold your fire, officer! We are Mr. Xander's body guards!" One yelled over.

Dirge Xander, however, just sneered as he began fixing his ruffled suit. He was a tall, dark looking man. He had slightly long black hair pulled back and nearly just as black eyes. He was wearing an expensive suit of the finest European fabric and a gold chain around his neck. He may have been rather good looking but he radiated sleezeball.

"Where the hell have you two been?! I was just taken as a hostage by a mad man! Do I not pay you enough to avoid that?!"

"Sorry, Mr. Xander!" The other guard said once Steven cleared them.

Kris rolled her eyes as she went over to Douglas Deacon, quickly kicking away his gun and then bending down to check him. She was not satisfied to find that he was dead, shot in a very vital area in his back. She frowned darkly as she looked over at the guards. "Which one of you shot him?" She ground out.

The two guards glanced at one another before the first raised a hand. "I am sorry for killing him. But we are paid to protect Mr. Xander. That man was threatening to kill our boss. I had no choice." He said gravely.

Kris stood up, going for her handcuffs. "Yeah, well, you killed a man who could have been talked out of it." She swopped down and picked up the gun Deacon had been using and checked it. She laughed harshly before holding up an empty clip. "He was out of bullets. He wasn't going to shoot Dirge Xander. You killed an unarmed man." She said darkly.

"Hold on!" Xander snapped as he glared at her. "How the hell are my guards to know that! They were trying to save me, unlike you!"

"Mr. Xander, they interfered with police business. We could have handled it just fine." Kris said with an air of exasperation.

Xander glared harder. "If you arrest my guard for doing his duty, I will see you in court and I will see you lose your job for your incompetence. If anything, my guards are who saved my life, while you were going to just stand there and let that man shoot me." He ground out.

Kris glared right back and started to open her mouth when a hand clamped over it to silence her. She jumped and turned her head to see Barricade's holoform being the one who did it.

"Unfortunately, you have a point, Mister Xander." Prowl was the one to speak up blankly. "We won't trouble you any further. As long as you are well, we will allow this to slip by."

Xander huffed and nodded sharply in satisfaction. "Well, at least one of the city's officers has sense. I don't have to press charges after all." He said darkly before motioning to his guards towards the Casino. "Now if you will excuse me, I have a casino to repair and clients to calm down."

Kris stiffened, not believing this. She could not believe that they were going to let Xander's guard get away with shooting a man.

"Mister Xander, we still need a statement from you about..." Steven was saying.

Xander turned around looking irritated. "How is this as a statement. That asshole came in, yelling at me about how his kid died while on drugs and putting the blame on me. Then he started shooting the place up, took me hostage, threatening to blow my head off and then Las Vegas' finest just stood there while my god damned guards took care of an insane mad man while you just fucking stood there! Plus my best suit was ruined! How is that as a statement?!" He snapped before whirling away and marching off into the casino.

Everyone just stood there, dumbfounded. No one could believe the nerve of this man, but in honesty, no one could blame him either. His casino and his customers were probably shaken to the extreme.

Still...

"Dude," Barricade murmured, making everyone jump out of their bewilderment. "What an asshole. He could have been nicer about it."

Again, everyone stared in bewilderment. This was coming from a Decepticon. That was not expected whatsoever.

"By the way! Why did you stop me?!" Kris finally exclaimed in irritation, looking at the Decepticon. "That body guard...!"

"Because he had a point, Kris." Steven interrupted dryly. "That is exactly how the court would see it if he got his way. Did you honestly forget what kind of man Dirge Xander is? He is nearly the richest man in Las Vegas because he owns a big chain in the casinos. He would win and you would lose your job, your kids and everything you hold as a police officer. Remember what he did to John? He is the one who got John fired in the first place and nearly you! So cool your jets! Let us just clean this mess up and then we can rant about it."

"But...!" Kris started.

"You know, the more I hear about this John guy, the more curious I am getting. What did your old partner do?" Barricade asked.

Kris looked away darkly before turning to walk away. "None of your business." She grumbled clearly not happy at all.

It was not even past noon and already it felt like a very long day.


	3. Dealing With Bullies

"Kris Hepherr! Get in here!"

Kris groaned as she set her jacket down on her chair and heded towards Birnbraum's office. She had just gotten back with Barricade from finishing their patrols and knew that Birns would say something about the shooting. Problem was, she needed to be out the door and picking up Jake from school in about twenty minutes. And Birnbraum's lectures were almost just as long as Prowl's was when he was lecturing Barricade. Her partner was only lucky to have escaped from one at the moment.

Making her way into the office, Kris plopped down in a chair and folded her arms. "Make this quick, Birns. I got a kid to go pick up." She grumbled.

Birnbraum gave her quite the look for her constant slaughter of his name. He was getting frustrated for it. "Don't you dare start with me, Kris! Do you know how serious this is?! I had several calls today about you! And all from Dirge Xander and his damn lawyers! He was saying you were going to let that man, Douglas Deacon shoot him!" He bellowed, his face turning slightly pink from anger.

"I was not! The man was out of bullets! I saw what kind of gun he had! By the way he was shooting at the casino, he would have been out of bullets! Dirge Xander was fine! He is just pissed because his suit was ruined!" Kris snapped back.

Birnbraum sighed in irritation as he rubbed his forehead. "Kris, you know what kind of reputation that Xander has. He helps funds the PD for gods sakes. You should have done..." he was saying.

Kris shook her head as she stood up and slapped her hands down on his desk. "What?! I should have what, Birnbraum?! Let that son of a bitch's guard get away with shooting and KILLING an unarmed man?! Yeah! That has worked out just fine! Tthe only reason why Xander's man is getting off is because his boss bitched about it and his suit was ruined! And because he is rich! I don't give a damn that bastard is rich, Birns! He is still required to follow the law just as everyone else is!" She snapped.

"Kris!"

Kris shook her head as she stepped back, looking furious. "Birns! The only reason you are yelling at me now about it is because Xander told you to! Otherwise we wouldn't be in this mess! You know he is dirty! You know it! I know he is into drugs! I don't see why we are not chasing him!" She growled.

Birnbraum shook his head, looking furious. "Because we have no proof! There is no evidence! We cannot chase him if there is no evidence! He doesn't have any drug dealers working for him! He has no connections! We tapped him him before and found nothing!" He snapped.

Kris shook her head as she spun away from him. "If you let me go undercover, I would get..." she was saying.

"No! No undercover work, Kris! Not after what happened with John and Jim and you!" Birnbraum stated loudly.

Kris laughed harshly asshe turned around and glared at him. "This what this is about?! That fiasco with the three of us, eight months ago?! We screwed up that undercover case and you just have to once again...!" She was snarling.

Birnbraum stood up and slammed his hands down. "Yes, Kris! This is about that! The fact that you are the one who screwed up by screwing...!" He was saying.

Kris turned to glare at him. "Don't you dare mention that, Birns! I already dealt with that! Yes, I am the one who messed up my marriage with John! But you have to remember, so did he! So do not blame his mistakes on me when I have my own! I want the case on Xander! I can find the evidence to put him...!" She was saying.

"There is no case, Kris! There won't be a case!" Birnbraum said firmly. "And, Kris, I am sorry to do this but I need you to do paper work before you go."

Kris gaped at him, alarmed for good reasons. "I can't! I have to pick up Jake from school!" She said in rage.

Birnbraum sighed as he rubbed his nose. He had forgotten about the kids. "It needs to be done, Kris. Unless you want it to be on my head and yours, you have got to get the paper work filled out or we are both in trouble!" He muttered.

"God damn it. I don't have time for this, Birns." Kris said as she massaged her own nose before sighing. She did not to do paper work at all. She just wanted to go get her kid and go home to relax. But she didn't want to do paper work either. "Okay. I will do it tonight. But let me get Barricade first." She said before leaving.

Barricade was outside, obviously, talking to Soundwave about what happened. He didn't like the sound of this Xander human. There was something not right about him. So he was turning to the expert.

"So, can you find anything on the fleshling?" Barricade asked.

Soundwave and Greg Butte listened to his resolve and the human shrugged. "Yeah, we can. I might have to go to a resource of mine. She knows more about the big bosses of each casino. And I am sure she knows a lot about Dirge Xander. She is a big DJ in the city. One of the best." He stated then got a bright eyed look as he thought of something. "Actually, Soundwave, you might like her. She likes big quiet ones."

Barricade snorted with laughter while Soundwave remained blank as ever.

"Hey, Barry."

Barricade turned his hidden optics onto wh called for him and frowned to see a harrassed looking Kris coming towards him. "What?" He asked in irritation.

Kris sighed as she walked up to him. "Can you take Kylee home and pick Jake up from school? And maybe keep an eye on them? I still have a bunch of paper work to do before going home. And Birns isn't relenting." She told him.

Groaning loud and long, that was not what Barricade wanted to hear. He would have done anything else but that.

Well...as long as it didn't deal with humans.

"Affirmative."

Barricade jumped at the sound of Soundwave's voice and he gave him a ridiculed look. He couldn't believe this. The Master Spy was bossing him around. Again!

"Hell no! I don't babysit!"

Soundwave turned his wheels and the front line warrior felt the burning glare. "Inquiry: Yes, you will. You will if I tell you to. It is a part of the community service. You will take Kylee and you will pick up Jake and you will watch them until Designation Kris Hepherr returns." He said in a very dark tone.

For a long moment, Barricade shared a glare with Soundwave and everyone felt it. They knew it was time for backing up right now.

"Barricade, please." Kris said not being one to backing up. She looked stressed out as it was. "Will you please pick up my son? I know we just met two days ago but I trust you with them."

Barricade nearly stalled as he spun his hidden optics onto her. He couldn't believe that she said that. He had been ttrusted before. Not even by his fellow Decepticons trusted him. Well, his team trusted him at least. But no one else did. No one would. But here was this human, saying she trusted him with her kids. That was a really big thing to him. He wasn't used to it at all.

Finally, Barricade sighed, sinking on his axels and bobbed his front as if nodding. "All right. Fine. You win, Hepherr. I'll take care of your kids. But don't expect me to be happy about it." He grumbled.

Kris smiled and patted his hood. "Thanks, Barry. Let me go get Kylee." She said before she hurried back into the department.

"Ooh. So, Barricade does have a soft spot. Unlike what you told me." Greg said nudging Soundwave's side. And when Barricade growled, he "Epp'd" and dove behind his partner. Soundwave, however, just remained quiet, quietly surprised that Barricade gave into Kris asking him nicely. That was an interesting turnabout.

Barricade was on his way to the school with Kylee sitting moodily in his passenger seat. Neither one were happy about the situation but at least one of them wasn't grumbling about it.

"I cannot believe she is doing this to me." Kylee grumbled as she planted her feet up on the dashboard. "I don't need a babysitter! Especially a robot one!"

"Feet off my dashboard. Now." Barricade grumbled, surprisingly calm.

Sighing impatiently Kylee folded her arms, looking defiant. She wasn't going to listen to him. He wasn't in charge of her no matter what he said. She refused to listen to an overgrown tin can. "Don't tell me what to do. You are not my boss! Nor are you my dad! I don't have to do anything you tell me to!" She snapped at him, now digging her feet harder into his dashboard to make a point.

Barricade growled his engine before he smirked inwardly to himself. He knew what to do to shut her up.

The cage behind him rolled away and he flipped back his seat so fast that Kylee didn't even registered what happened until she was flipped over and off the seat into the back. Then with a loud clang, the cage wire was back in place.

"Hey! What the fuck?!"

"One, watch your mouth, brat! Two, you are riding with me because your mother asked me to take you home! And three, I AM in charge until your mother gets home! You will listen to me because if you don't, you will be spending the night in my back seat without any heat going! Got that?!" Barricade growled at her.

Kylee gritted her teeth before punching at the cage wire and then yelping when all it did was hurt her hand. "Ow." She groaned.

"Another thing, I am a being made out of the strongest metal in the universe. Don't punch me unless you want a trip to a medic." Barricade chuckled, more amused than angry.

Kylee sank back against the seat, grumbling. "Asshole." She hissed.

Barricade only chuckled, amused by her fiery attitude. "You haven't seen me being an asshole yet, human. So don't push me." He warned in amusement as he pulled up to the school and searched for Jake.

And nearly stalled when he found him.

Jake was pinned to a wall by a bigger boy, while the others were chanting for their friend to punching him. Which he was doing but not too hard.

"Jake!" Kylee yelped obviously seeing her little brother being bullied. She scrambled for the door but it was locked. "Barricade! Let me out! I have to go...!" She was saying.

The door swung open and she spilled out just as loud clanging began. Kylee, startled, turned to see Barricade now unfolding himself nd standing up, looking quite vicious. She hadn't seen him mode yet but this was a shock to see it now. Barricade stood up, growling before shooting the stunned Kylee a look. "Don't move from this spot. I will take care of this!" He warned her before making swift steps towards the bullies.

The boys didn't hear Barricade coming because they were yelling their friend on to hitting Jake but when the saw Jake look past them and looked stunned, they turned around. And yelped to see two hige metal legs right in front of them.

"Whoa! Run away!" One yelped.

"Do not move!" Snapped the huge mech making them flinch heavily back against the wall.

The boy who had been hitting Jake dropped his victim, allowing him to slid down the wall as he looked up with shock. "Wh-what?! What are you?!" He stammered in fear.

Barricade slammed his fists on his waist, glaring down at the bullies. He was making himself look as menacing as possible. "So, you lot like being like aftheads and bullying people smaller than you, huh? You like picking on kids younger than you, right?!" He growled down at them.

The boys were quick to shaking their heads.

Barricade smirked down at them. "Oh, I think you do. Otherwise, I wouldn't have just pulled up and seen you beating up on one kid who asked you to stop!" He turned his burning red glare onto Jake, who cringed a little. "Jake, how many times do these guys pick on you a day?" He asked warningly.

Jake swallowed hard before shrugging. "A...maybe...um...all day every day." He said nervously.

"And have you told your mother about it?"

Jake shook his head. "No! I can't tell her! It's embarrassing and she'll come to school and make things worse!" He said in a pleading tone.

Barricade shook his head before turning a glare onto the boys again. "Jake, go over to Kylee. Now." He warned agaain.

Scampering to his feet, Jake quickly moved to listen. He hurriedover to his sister, who wrapped her arms around him.

All the while, leaving the bullies to a rather pissed off giant alien robot.

"Now," Barricade began darkly as he leaned down closer to the boys, who cringed back. "If I ever see or hear you been picking on Jake or any kid again, I will come to the school and make your lives a living pit. Do you understand me?!" He growled at them.

"Ye-yes, si-sir!" All of the boys stammered.

Barricade gave a sharp nod as he stood up to his full height again. "Now, go home and do your homework! And remember what I said!" He snapped.

The boys scampered off as fast as they could while he metal giant went back to Kylee and Jake, folding himself back down to his cruiser mode. The doors swung open to allow them back in. Both kids were quick to doing so, still stunned by what they just saw.

"Jake, I won't tell Kris about the bullies but if they do it again, you are to call her and we will both with it. Got that?" Barricade warned once again.

Jake nodded, a hint of a smile on his face. "Okay. Thanks, Barricade." He said before pausing and then grinning. "Dude! That was so cool! I don't think they will ever bother me again! The way you just walked up to hem and made them stop! That was way awesome!"

Kylee, now smiling, nodded as she leaned forward to look at the steering wheel. "Yeah, that was pretty cool! Maybe you can do that to someone else we know who bullies mom." She said.

Barricade started driving but had slowed down a notch as Kylee's words took him by surprise. "Who bullies your mom?" He asked a slight growl escaping.

Jake and Kylee grimaced as they glanced at one another then shrugged. "Our dad, John Hepherr." They piped up at the same time and Barricade nearly stalled himself in surprise.


	4. Case Two

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Song used for this chapter and the next chapter: We Want It All/We Will Rock You (Suckerpunch version)

Kris had gotten home rather late that night, being dropped off by Prowl and Steven as they were on their way home. She was so grumpy after all of the paper work she had done. She couldn't believe Birnbraum made her stay when she had two kids to deal with.

As soon as Prowl dropped her off, she thanked him since Steven was snoozing in the passenger's seat. Then she turned towards her house, pausing to see Barricade sitting in the drive way. She knew he must have been asleep because of how still he was. Shrugging, Kris headed towards the door, wanting to just go to bed.

"Hey."

Jumping at the sound of Barricade's voice, Kris spun around and looked at the dark police cruiser with alarm. "Hey." She greeted quietly before walking over to him. "I thought you were asleep."

Barricade remained still as ever but did click on the cab light so she would know he was awake. "Nope. I was making sure Kylee wasn't going to sneak out. She tried earlier but I sent her back inside the first three times. She is still awake and probably going to try it again. Jake is still awake too, but just barely." He said quietly.

Kris sighed as she rubbing her forehead. "I really don't know what I am going to do about her. She is really out of hand. She just can't stay out of trouble. And tthis whole drug thing she has..." she was saying.

"She took them from Jake, Kris." Barricade interrupted, making her look at him in surprise. "Kylee was telling the truth. She took them from Jake. I don't know why he had them. But I highly doubt that he is into them. I ran a systems check on him and he doesn't have any afflictions of drugs in his system. I think at the most part, he was cornered to dealing them or is serving as a carrier for someone."

Kris slowly shook her head, not believing that. "That is impossible. He would never do that. He is just..." she was saying.

"He may be a kid but he is being bullied into doing it, Kris. He probably doesn't want to do it but he is too scared to saying no." Barricade said quietly. "I suggest you try talking, calmly, might I add, about it. He will talk to you as long as you stay calm."

For a long moment, Kris stared at him before slowly nodding and turning heel for her house. She figured she would do just that. It was time to get to the bottom of this.

Going inside, Kris went straight to Jake's room, pausing to take a deep breath before slowly entering. She found him on hos bed, reading a comic book. And when he looked up, she smiled as she entered, closing the door. "Hey."

"Hi, mom. Welcome home." Jake said smiling as he sat up.

Kris went over and sank down beside him. She knew she would have to be careful about this. She didn't want to upset him. It would kill them both about it. "Barricade told me something interesting." She said and Jake stiffened. "He said he knows about the drugs, Jake. He just told me that you were the one who had some. Got something to share?" She asked trying to be careful but stern.

Jake stared at her with wide eyes before he sighed and lowered his head. "Mom, I swear I am not using them." He swore.

Kris frowned now very serious. She now knew this was very serious. "Jake, where did you get them? Is someone forcing you to use them or deal them?" She asked sternly.

Jake shook his head. "I swear, I am not using them. I just...some guys forced me to take them. They said I had to take them to someone tomorrow. They said if I told anyone about it, they would hurt Kylee and you and then me." He told her.

Kris frowned deeply before she took a deeper breath. "Who were they, Jake? What did they look like?" She asked him, seriously. She meant business. She wanted to know who was forcing her son to carry drugs. It was a serious situation that she would not take lightly. And he knew that. That was why he told her exactly what the men looked like. He didn't leave a thing out.

The door slammed open and Kris entered with Barricade's holoform right behind him. They both looked very serious and meant business for what brought them to Birnbraum's office.

"I got him, Birns! I have Xander right where we need him!" Kris said firmly.

Birnbraum sighed as he put his newspaper down from reading it. "Kris, we already been through this..." he was saying.

Kris ignored him as she dug into her jacket and pulled out a baggie of pot, slapping it down in front of her boss, startling him. "I took this off of Kylee, who took it from Jake, Birnbraum! Jake told me that two men in suits gave them to him and threatened him to take them to someone today! It was Xander's body guards, Birns!"

Birnbraum stared at her in surprise before he took the bag to examine. "You are serious, aren't you?" He asked stumped.

"Deadly. Xander is having his guards do the dealing, Birns. And they are using kids to deliver. It is the most unexpected thing they can pull." Kris said frowning darkly.

Barricade nodded. "I also got it from Soundwave that he met Greg Butte's source of information last night at some night club." He then snickered as if something was hilarious. "Never in my life had I ever seen Soundwave flustered. So whoever the lady is, she must be quite a looker or something. His subunits wouldn't stop laughing while he was giving me the info. Frenzy said something about her kissing him too. Would'a gave a lot of energon just to see that happen." He remarked.

Kris and Birnbraum stared at him, blankly before looking at each other.

"Birns, we got to nail Xander. Using kids. He is using kids." Kris said firmly.

Birnbraum sighed as he rubbed his nose. This wasn't good news. "All right. All right. We'll put someone under cover." He said before turning to get a roster book off his desk. He would need to see who was qualified for a job like this. And it would be more than likely that whoever he picked would have to work with Greg and Soundwave and the rest of the Communications team. So perhaps he should pick...

"Heh-hem." Barricade cleared his vocoder and folded his arms moodily. "Why not us?"

Kris nodded as she glared at her boss. "Yeah! We brought this to you! So let us be on it!" She threw in her piece.

Birnbraum sighed shaking his head, rather impatiently. "No! One, Kris, you insultted Xander yesterday! He will see you and recognize you! And two," he motioned to Barricade. "I am sorry, Barricade. But the way you look just scream cop. He will know you two are cops from a mile away. Then the whole mission would be blown out of the water before it actually began. Not to mention we would have a huge lawsuit on their hands. As if we didn't already have a beginning one already with you, Kris." He stated impatiently.

Barricade glared at him before shaking his head. Again, someone was remarking about his human look. Maybe itt was time for a make over, after all. He closed his eyes and his holoform started sparking out of existence before another took its place. He opened his eyes to see Kris and Birnbraum's reaction and found them gaping in shock. "How about this then?" The front line officer asked smugly.

"That might actually work. And for your under cover partner, we can use someone that Xander actually knows and can actually get close to him." Birnbraum said still stunned.

Walking out of the office, Barricade found it hilarious to see officers immediately stopping and staring at him with shock. A lot of ladies in the room couldn't help but smile. And even Kylee, who had been talking to Greg, turned to gape at Barricade.

The man who walked out of the office was tall, dark and yet handsome with black hair with white peppered naturally in it. He had a tough, bad boy look with a black goatee and fuzz on his lip but it looked good on him. He wore black jeans and a black tee shirt with a very black leather jacket. He walked tall and with a confident smirk on his face. He was definitely enjoying this a little too much.

"Whoa! Now that guy is hot!" Kylee whistled and beside her Greg pouted as he glanced at her.

Kris smirked as she joined Barricade, shaking her head. "Now, that look suits you." She remarked.

Barricade smirked back at her, shrugging. "Eh, like I said..." he was saying before having to stop when Kris planted a hand over his mouth, stopping him from talking.

"Don't ruin the moment, you. I don't give compliments often. So take it with saying anything." Kris said dryly. She looked over at Greg. "Greg, we need survellience pack and your friend that met with Soundwave last night. We need her help getting close to Xander so we can nail him." She stated.

Greg grimaced but nodded. "Okay. I'll call Max and find out if she is willing to help." He said pulling out his cell phone."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Author's Note:
> 
> If anyone is wondering what Barricade looks like, basically he now looks like Oded Fehr.


	5. Case Three-Nailing A Drug Lord

It was easy to say that Greg's contact agreed to help the police department but not without hesitance. She had been very hesitant about helping to nailing Xander. She only agreed when Greg mentioned that Soundwave was a part of this case. That made the large Decepticon go very, very quiet and very still.

And that caused Barricade to become very excited about meeting her.

Everyone was waiting at the PD, including Jake and Kylee. Kris wanted her kids to stay at the department while she was sitting in the communications command vehicle that was Soundwave, who was extremely quiet at the moment. He wasn't talking about anything. Not even helping Greg plan about what mics to use for Max when she went to help Barricade nail Xander.

Barricade was sniggering as he looked right at the already silent Spy Master. He was reading an uneasy wave coming off his fellow Decepticon. "Sooooo, how pretty is this girl that is making you quieter than usual?" He asked going over to nudge Soundwave's side.

Soundwave growled his engine. "Suggestion: Shut up." He growled out.

Barricade couldn't help but laugh. He knew it was dangerous to make fun of Soundwave. But this was hilarious.

"Hey! Here she comes!" Greg said pointing.

Immediately Barricade shut up and looked to see a car coming. And his jaw fell open, as did others. They could not believe the car that was coming. It was not only a very nice car but it was a hot one.

It was a hot pink Audi R8 with a custom paint job of an angel on the roof. The car came to a complete stop not too far away from where they were before the driver's side door opened and the driver stepped out, wearing black mid calf boots. And once again, jaws fell when they saw the woman as she closed her door.

She was a young woman probably in her mid thirties, tall and slender but clearly did work out to keep her figure. She had cut short blonde hair with pink high lights in the underside of her hair, also being held back with four head blood red and pink head bands. Her eyes were a deep hazel/blue color that seemed to pop just fine with the dark make up she wore. She wore a blood red corset top with a short black skirt running down in between her thighs and calves, showing some leg but wasn't looking too slutty. In fact, it seemed just right for her.

But the curves on her had quite a few men whistle low.

"Damn. No wonder Soundie was so flustered." Barricade said with a whistle of his own and he yelped when Soundwave's door swung open and hit his holoform from behind. And it certainly didn't help when Kris slapped him upside the head to reprimend him for teasing his fellow Decepticon.

The woman, however, smirked as if she heard him. She even lift her head higher as if proud of what reactions she had gotten.

"Hi, Max!" Greg greeted as he waved at her.

The woman smiled back and waved as she walked up to him and offered her fist for a bump which Greg complied to. "Hey, Greggo. What's up?" She then looked around before eyeing the big vehicle next to him and smiled slyly. "So let me guess? Soundwave, right? The big, silent handsome from last night, right?"

Barricade couldn't stop the snort while Soundwave seemed to stiffen on his wheels. "Yup, that's him. Though, how'd you know it was beats me." He said with a chuckle. He felt Soundwave's burning glare turn on him but he ignored it.

Max smiled brightly and waved at Soundwave. "Hey there, big guy. I am glad to be working with you again." She said in an almost flirtatious way. She received no comment back and she laughed as she turned to Barricade. "I knew it was him because I know music. It is sort of a gift of mine. I see people and I can put that person with a song. I guess it goes the same for your kind. I see this big Command vehicle and think of the same song as of the guy I met last night. He has the same song." She explained.

Barricade looked surprised but shrugged. "Really? What song do you think seeing me?" He asked very interested.

Max stared at him for a long moment before smirking. "Won't Back Down by Eminem." She told him.

Barricade frowned as he looked up the song on YouTube before grinning. He definitely approved that song. The beat and lyrics seemed just like him. "Wow, you're good. What about Soundwave? What's his...OW!" He yelled when Soundwave swung his door open and hit Barricade from behind. "Knock it off!"

Amused, Max shook her head with one hand over her mouth. "Sorry, but for him, I won't say." She said still laughing.

"Maxine DeNaro, right?" Kris asked as she stepped closer.

Max looked at her smiling but shook her head. "It's actually Tanner. Max Tanner. DeNaro is a stage name. You must be Kris Hepherr. Greg talks about your daughter a lot when we hang out." She said slyly.

Kris raised her eyebrows before looking over at Greg, who lit up bright red and tried to look very busy. "Oh really? You're going to have to tell me about it later. But for starters, we should get you prepped for the assignment." She said as she nodded towards Barricade. "We will put a wire on you so we can hear everything from Soundwave. Everything you say and what Xander says will be heard. You won't be in any danger because Barricade will be right there. If it starts to get too dangerous, we will pull you out immediately." She explained.

Max merely shrugged as she grinned. "I can handle it. Xander is dangerous but I can take him. But if it helps, if I know he is getting really touchy and getting ready to pull a nasty, I will say a key word." She reassured.

Kris nodded in agreement. "Sounds good. What will it be?" She asked just to know.

Max grinned before looking at Soundwave. "Oh, I think Handsome will know it when he hears it. He will let you know." She stated.

Soundwave stiffened on his wheels and Barricade burst out with laughter. This was definitely a great thing to watch. His higher Commanding Officer being made an example out of. He even ignored the fact that Soundwave swung his door open and hit his holoform harder than before.

Finally, Barricade and Max were entering the club, The Lockjaw where they knew they would find Dirge Xander. Everything was in place and the mission was about to begin.

Max, to make it look good, had her arm linked with Barricade's, who made it a show that he was a down straight tough guy that you just didn't mess with. It was actually him, being normal really. He kept a hard look on his face while the femme was doing her best, and not having to do a lot, to enjoying herself. She was smiling and waving at a few who knew her.

Together, Max and Barricade walked through the lounge until they came to a set of doors where two very familiar guards were stationed.

The guards took one look at Max and grinned. "Well, well, well. Look who is back. Hey, Max. Been a long time, hasn't it?" The first, who Barricade recognized as the one who killed the man, Doug, said.

Max smiled flirtatiously. "Hey, Quinton. Sure has been. Is Dirge in?" She asked.

The second guard nodded before giving Barricade a very dark look. "Sure he is. But he is busy right now. What do you need and who is this dick?" He asked darkly.

Barricade did his best not to growl at the man but he did make a good impression to let the man know not to insult him. He would have said something if Max had not placed a hand on his chest, pushing into him to keep him quiet. "He's a new client, Craig. He just arrived from across the country and he heard about Dirge. He wants to make a deal." Max quickly said not losing her flirty ways.

"The fucker got a name?" Quinton asked, meeting the scathing look Barricade gave him.

"Cade. Barry Cade. I'd appreciate it if you spoke with a little more respect." Barricade growled, ignoring Max digging her fingers into his chest in warning.

"Oooh, a tough guy, huh? You know what we do with tough guys, shithead?" Craig growled, now taking a step forward.

But Max quickly stepped forward and placed a hand on his chest to keep him from making a big mistake. "Hey, hey, Craig. Ease off. Now do you think I would bring him in to see Dirge if he wasn't cool? You know me better than that." She said, rubbing his chest.

Craig shared a glare with Barricade again before looking at Quinton and nodding. He waited there while his partner stepped into the room, behind the door. He kept a glaring contest going on with Barricade, while Max tapped her fingers against her arm, not looking too thrilled. She actually looked bored.

It did not take long for Quinton to come back, looking quite moody. "Mr. Xander will see you and your companion, Max. But first," he smirked looking at Barricade. "We get to tap him down. You ain't carrying weapons are you?" He asked darkly.

Barricade snorted but raised both arms to allow the guards to frisk him. "No. Unless you count my fist in your face as one." He remarked.

*Barricade! Suggestion: Knock it off!* Came Soundwave's order through their com links.

*Just trying to make an impression here, Soundwave.* Barricade ground back at him.

*Suggestion: DON'T! Goal of mission: Dealings and Trust. Failing inquiries: You acting too tough!*

Barricade fought himself to not roll his eyes. He didn't want to deal with Soundwave right now. He just turned his attention back to the guards, who finished frisking him.

There was only one thing that the guards took out of his pockets ad it was a leather bag full of metal pellets. They frowned at it but gave it back to him to put back into his jacket pocket.

"All right. You can go in. But I have to warn you," Quinton remarked darkly as he glared right into Barricade's own eyes. "Anything you see in this room, if you ever talk about it or make things hard for our boss, we will hunt you and whoever you care about down and make the Saw movies look like Nursery Rhyme movies. Got it?" He threatened.

A wide grin spread out on Barricade's face as he leaned closer to the human, not stopping his eyes from flashing red and making the human back off with alarm. "Is that the best threat you got, ugly? I've done ten times worse than fragging Jigsaw could ever do." He growled before shoving the man aside and taking Max's arm, leading her in like an escort.

Entering the room, they were met with hard rock music playing in a rather dark room lit with only bright red lights in the walls. It looked more like a back show room with one stage was sitting and a pair of women wearing skimpy clothes were dancing to the music. There were at least four or five tables in the room where a few men were gambling away at Poker or Blackjack and getting drunk off of beer and scotch. But there was only one table that held Barricade's interest and that was where Dirge Xander was sitting with one woman on his lap, rubbing at his chest.

Dark eyes met dark eyes, and neither smiled but studied each other.

That is until Max took the lead and walked right up to where Dirge Xander was sitting. "Dirge, baby! What is up, man?" She said cheerfully.

Xander tore his eyes away from Barricade's and he spared a dark smile for Max before he roughly shoved the girl off his lap and stood up to greet Max with kisses against both of her cheeks. "Maxine, my most favorite client in the entire city." He said, his voice darker than Barricade remembered. "Can I get you something? Coke? EX?"

Max stepped back and held up a finger to wag at him. "Former client, Dirge. You know I don't do that anymore. I quit over a year ago and I am staying clean, darling. It is not me anymore." She said in a teasing scolding way.

Dirge Xander's eyes narrowed but he smiled as if he was a snake ready to strike. "Pity." He sank back into his chair, roughly pulling the girl back on to his lap and reaching for a glass of something...glowing green?

Barricade frowned, staring at the glass. He didn't get what that was. What human beverage glowed green?

"Absinthe."

Blinking out of his thoughts, Barricade looked back at Xander, who had noticed his inquiring look about the drink. He recalled what he just said before looking it up. That definitely put up red flags in his systems. "Absinthe, huh? I was aware that was banned from the U.S." he remarked with a smirk.

Xander had a light of dark amusement in his eyes before he lift the glass and downed the drink. "It was. It's not legal here in the States. But I had some imported from Europe. It was always known to be a highly addictive psychoactive drug. A hallucinogen. It makes you see gorgeous green fairies flying around most of the time. But, if you drink it as much as I do, you won't." He set down the glass and then motioned for Max to sit down next to him and Barricade to sit down in a chair across from him. "My guard says Max brought you to make a deal with me. Problem is, I do not know you. So?"

Barricade sat down like he had been asked, looking casual as ever. "My name is Barry Cade. I am a cop from New York." He said out right.

The tension in the room seemed to snap like a rubber band. Max looked wide eyed at him as she had been settling down next to Xander, who had not seemed to react at all, except narrow his eyes at the man before him. Even the men in the room stopped what they were doing just to stare at Barricade with alarm.

"A cop?" Xander asked, his tone very serious and deadly now. He sent a look at Max, who looked back at him with a nervous look. "Why the hell would she bring a cop to me when she knows how much I despise cops?"

Max drew back a little, turning her eyes onto Barricade, who smirked back.

"It doesn't mean I am a good cop." The Front Liner remarked with an edging amusement to his tone. "I deal under the table when no one is looking."

The tension seemed to ease right out again and Xander actually looked interested now. "Really? And why should I believe that? You could be undercover. Just trying to get me to say something like...I am dealing drugs under the table." He said though there was a dangerous edge in the way he said that.

Barricade shrugged, keeping his own dangerous smile on his face. "You might be right then." He then shook his head. "Doesn't mean I would turn you in. I want in with whatever you have. I heard you were good at covering up your tracks, but how would you like to be better?" He asked darkly.

Xander narrowed his eyes but nodded for Barricade to go on.

Shrugging, Barricade reached into his pocket, making quite a few tense up, though Xander narrowed his eyes to mere slits. He only pulled out the bag of metal pellets before carefully dumping the pellets onto the table in a pile.

Everyone watched curiously as the pellets sat there, almost innocently.

"What are those?" Xander asked when nothing happened.

Barricade merely smirked at him before looking at the pellets again. "Activate and reform, Project Reedman." He ordered.

Suddenly the pellets began moving around the table before they began to build into each other, becoming one ad building up into an extremely thin sheet of metal with the exception of a burning red optic.

Several people drew back uneasily, watching as Reedman turned his burning red optic towards Xander who looked quite curious in deed. "What is this?" He asked seriously.

"This is what I deal." Barricade said smirking as he watched everyone's reactions. He motioned to Reedman, who did not move but clicked and clattered in Cybertronian. "It is a Governmental experiment that the Weapons department of the U.S Government has created for surveillance intelligence projects. I managed to get my hands on these. It is called Project Reedman. It is a form of nanobots built together, perfect for sneaking into any facility and gathering secrets. It has series of codes encoded into its programming and can hack into any phone line and computer in the world."

Xander pushed the girl off his lap and leaned forward to examine Reedman, who hissed softly but made no move to attack or draw back. It just remained still as ever. "Interesting. And exactly what do you propose?" He asked, tilting his head this way and that to study Reedman.

Barricade shrugged. "It is the best way of covering your tracks if you need to place shipments to outside the States. Say like, you need drugs or weapons in the Columbian Mafia. Or even your Absinthe from Europe. You will need to place it through the computer system or phone lines. Reedman, here, can serve as a firewall to make sure you never get in trouble with anyone, ever again. It is also good for stealing and selling Government secrets to other countries." He stated.

Xander slowly nodded, a wicked smile now curling on his face. "Show me an example." He ordered.

Barricade nodded before looking at Reedman. "Project Reedman, hack into the Russian Government and 'borrow' the codes to their biohazard weapons systems." He stated.

Reedman's optic glowed brightly and after a moment it clicked.

"He now has the codes and bypasses to the Biohazard weapons from the Russian Government. We now have access to nuclear weapons. You can easily start World War III by threats for the highest bid." Barricade said smugly.

Xander looked to the side and motioned to one of the men, who quickly brought a lap top over. He set it down and gained access in. "Can it download the information without being penetrated by the Government?" He asked looking at Barricade.

Barricade nodded and looked at Reedman. "Project Reedman, download the information to Dirge Xander's laptop. Show him the schematics and codes." He ordered.

Reedman extended a servo and plugged it into the laptop's I/O port. His optic glowed brightly and immediately information began popping up onto the screen.

Xander's dark eyes grew bright with a twisted desire and excitement. He was definitely impressed with what he was seeing. "Excellent." He looked at Barricade. "You have such a magnificent intelligence weapon here, Mr. Cade. What do you want for this?" He asked interested.

Barricade merely smirked as he tilted his head to the side. "Fifty-Fifty of whatever you do in your businesses. I want to be your partner in everything. Together, we can run any gang, steal anything from the Government, and deal drugs without worries. We can rule the world with this piece of equipment." He stated smugly. "All you have to do is say the word."

Xander smirked back and nodded as he closed his laptop and sat back. He reached over and began rubbing Max's shoulder, who did not look comfortable with hearing or seeing any of this. "I see. And what is the word?" He asked narrowing his eyes.

Barricade grinned. "Yes, of course." He shrugged. "Of course, you will have to be honest with me. It is very hard to lie to me. What is your operations like?" He asked in a down to business tone.

Xander was quiet for a moment before he slowly nodded and began trailing his fingers up Max's shoulder to near her neck. It was definitely making her uncomfortable. "Do you know what a Lockjaw is?" He suddenly asked.

Barricade frowned at the sudden subject change. He didn't see what that had to do with anything they were currently talking about. But to humor the human, Barricade answered. "It's a bacterial disease called tetanus. It is a disease that can attack the nervous system and cause one's body to lock in place and cannot be reorganized unless the nervous system can be relaxed." He stated without interest.

Xander nodded slowly and lazily. "It is also another name for a Moray eel." He said before tapping the underside of his table and a wall slowly rolled away to reveal a large aquarium full of long thick snake like creatures slithering through the water. "No one really uses that name much but it is name true. If a moray eel was ever threatened, it has a tendency to lash out and bite whatever it is that is threatening it. Problem is, it locks its jaw and refuses to release its prey until death or until someone pries its mouth open for release." He explained with a lazy shrug. "I like to think of myself as a moray eel. When I am threatened, I tend to bite very hard, Mr. Cade." He said darkly before he clicked his fingers and one of the guards in the room left.

Barricade frowned, wondering what exactly...his eyes lit up when he noticed something about Xander. He hadn't noticed it at all.

But there was an ear bud inserted into his ear, like a hearing aid or Bluetooth phone ear piece.

Suddenly there was a sound of struggling from behind the door, making Barricade frown and look at the door right behind Xander. He watched carefully, wondering...'Oh, slag!' He thought in a groan.

The guard had returned, dragging in none other than Kris Hepherr. She looked pretty roughed up with a split forehead and sweat coating her skin. She looked as if she had just been in a fight.

*Soundwave! What is Kris doing in here?!* Barricade demanded, keeping completely calm

*Inquiry: Officer Hepherr went to patrol the premises. Claim: Make sure no escape routes were unguarded. Best Solution: She must have gotten caught.* Soundwave replied, sounding just as tense as Barricade felt.

"My guards found her sneaking around outside the back. This woman is an Officer of the Las Vegas Police Department and yesterday, she was supposed to save my life when a man threatened to shoot me." Xander said his tone hard. "For a long time, this cop has been a thorn in my side. She and I never actually met until yesterday but, she has been a pain."

"What does that got to do with me?" Barricade asked lazily, though he was quickly searching for any way to save her.

Xander shook his head as he looked darkly at Kris, whose mouth was covered with tape and she was fighting to free herself from the guard. It wasn't easy at all. "Nothing at all. I was just going to say, if you want me to say yes and not kill you so I can just take your marvelous weapon, I want you to kill her and Max." He simply said.

There was a dead pause before Max looked wide eyed at him, her legs uncrossing and she tried to move away from Xander. But before she could, the wicked man roughly grabbed her by the neck and yanked her closer to where she cried out in pain. "Dirge! What the hell?!" She snapped.

"Maxine, you brought a fucking cop into my base of operations, dirty or not!" Xander snapped as he forced her to bend over the table, pressing her face against it. "Plus, you didn't even realize, Scott Bernard, the bartender of The Vanity is under my employment! He told me you were talking to a god damned cop last night! Practically gave him a lap dance! Do you remember who made you, Max?! Who pulled you out of the streets when you were a drug addict six years ago?! Me! I own you, Max! Your very life, body and soul belongs to me!" He snarled now pulling a gun out from behind his back.

"Come...come on over, handsome." Max choked out, making Xander frown down at her.

Barricade was on his feet now but had to stop when Xander whipped the gun around and pointed it at him. "Easy, Xander." He said raising his hands.

"And you," Xander said darkly as he kept the gun trained on him. "You really think I am an idiot?! Dirty cop, my ass! I have an insider in the police department! I know what you are, dumbass! An Autobot! One of those god damned aliens that was just revealed to the world! Plus your eyes are glowing!" He snapped.

A wicked grin spread out on Barricade's face, though he was glaring at the human. "Wrong." He said with a growl before he allowed his eyes to fully glow bright red. "I am a Decepticon, dumbaft. And you made a big mistake. Two actually."

Xander shoved Max harder into the table, making her hiss in pain. "Oh, yeah? What's that, robot?" He hissed dangerously.

"One, you threatened my human partner. And two, you are threatening the lady that Soundwave sort of likes." Barricade said grinning wickedly.

Xander frowned. "What?" He asked in confusion.

Suddenly something snapped against Xander's leg, making him jump and look down, only to gape when he found a glowing cord or tentacle wrapped around his leg. And he wasn't the only one. All of his guards had looked down when they felt something wrap around their legs. And all had a glowing cord on them.

"What the hell is tha...aaaaaaat?!" Xander suddenly yelped as the cord snapped and yanked him right off his feet, along with his guards. He screamed in alarm as he was yanked right outside the door that his guard had brought Kris through. His guards, on the other hand, were either yanked after him or through the other door through the casino. Shouts of alarm followed after by patrons in the lobby, as well as screams.

Barricade snorted before he looked down at Reedman, who looked back. "Download everything on Dirge Xander's laptop and send it to Soundwave for information processing. Also, destroy those codes and even obliterate them into cyber space. This slagging world don't need nuclear weapon access or anything. I think even the slagging Prime will have to admit it, but the humans do enough damage to their selves without them."

Reedman clicked at him, sounding reproachful. He did not look thrilled.

Barricade glared hard at him, not amused by whatever it was that Reedman had just said. "Oh, just fragging do it, you fragging bug! Unless you want Soundwave to hand your aft to ya!" He snapped before looking at Max and Kris as they stood up. "You all right?"

Kris pried the tape off of her mouth and gave him a wide eyed look. "Cutting it kind of close, don't you think?!" She then turned to Max. "What about the key word?! You never said it!"

Max rubbed her forehead where there was a red mark. "I did too. 'Come on over, handsome' was the key word. It was a song I sang to Soundwave last night." She explained.

Barricade shook his head as he nodded for them to join him. "Come outside. Soundwave has Xander and his goons covered." He said and they followed him out.

Going outside, Barricade, Kris and Max found that all of Xander's men were on the ground, covered by Steven, Prowl and many of the other officers and were in the middle of being handcuffed. Xander, however, was putting up a pretty good fight, trying to kick off Soundwave's tentacles off his leg. He was scrambling and yelling up a storm at being restrained by the large Mobile Communications Command vehicle.

However, twisting and jerking, Xander caught a glimpse of the three coming out from his casino with many of his patrons watching wide eyed at what was going on. He gritted his teeth, looking pretty pissed off right about now. He was not happy. "You bitch!" He snarled, probably aiming the insult at a smug looking Kris as she approached carefully, her hands on her waist.

"Dirge Xander, you are under arrest for drug involvement, murder , terrorist plotting activities, though I think we can sort of blame Barricade for that one. You are also under arrest for threatening my life and my daughter's and especially my son's life about carrying your damn drugs for you and your goons." Kris said before turning slightly away. "No one ever does that. Not without me kicking their ass."

"BITCH!" Xander yelled again before he curled up into himself, digging at his pants leg.

There were several yells of alarm as everyone watched as the man pull a small gun out from his boot and throw it up towards Kris, who spun around with her own alarm and backed away in slight fear.

Suddenly there was an assemble of loud clicks and whirls as well as banging metal before a large metal hand slammed down in between Xander and Kris just as the gun went off and the bullet slammed into the metal, causing it to spark. There was only a growl as the bullet hit a joint in Barricade's hand, lodging inside of it. But at the most part, he ignored it as he lowered his large metal face close to a very pale and terrified looking Dirge Xander.

"Drop the fragging gun, pitspawn." Barricade growled warningly.

Xander, out of fear, did exactly what he was told before he was yanked up to his feet by Steven to be hand cuffed.

Barricade turned to look at the now hyperventilating Kris. He knew she had been taken by surprise by having a gun pulled out on her and it was now catching up quickly. "You all right, Kris?" He asked, meeting her wide eyes.

Taking deep breaths to calm herself, Kris nodded, a slow grateful smile curling onto her face. "Thanks, Barry. I definitely owe you big time for that." She said, still trying to catch her breath. She smiled big when Barricade just shrugged it off and stood up to his full height. He turned to look at Soundwave, noticing that Max had walked over, smiling at the vehicle. He could barely hear her thanking the Communications Officer for intervening with Xander.

"We did it, Barricade." Kris spoke up before looking over at Steven as he and Prowl stepped closer, looking satisfied. They both nodded to her.

"Question is now, who was Xander's informant in the PD?" Steven asked, his smile falling and he looked very serious to think that they had a leak of information in their very own department.

Barricade narrowed his optics before looking over at Soundwave, feeling the CO's own burning into him and Prowl. The three of them shared a quick word over the com links. *Soundwave, you think you can find out?* The black and white Decepticon asked.

*Affirmative. Status: Already have.* Soundwave answered.

*Who is it, Soundwave?* Prowl asked, very seriously.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Author's Note:
> 
> For who Max looks like, it's Alecia Moore, also known as Pink. I like her music and she definitely rocks. I think she would be perfect as Max Tanner.


	6. Catching Spies and Crashing Bad Parties

Returning to the Police Department was no problem. It was facing the one who sold them all out that was the problem. Especially on who it was. Kris and Steven both made their way towards Birnbraum's office, with very serious looks on their faces. It was a serious problem they were facing. They knew it was going to be very messy and as it was, they both could lose their jobs over this. But if it caught a bad cop, it would be worth it.

Kris slammed the door open, making the occupant jump and accidentally throw papers around. She paid no mind to the glare her boss gave her as she stormed up to the desk and slammed her hands down on it. "Birnbraum! We need to speak to you, you son of a bitch!" She snarled before being pulled away from the desk.

"Kris! What the hell are you talking about?!" Birnbraum gumped out.

Kris bared her teeth at him, trying to wrench away from Steven but he held fast. "You! We have a spy in the department who warned Xander that we were coming! And that was you! You stupid son of a bitch! That is why you wouldn't have us arrest him! It was you!" She snapped.

Birnbraum stared at her real long and hard before he swore and shook his head. "I cannot believe you, Kris. How could you blame me? I am the Police Chief of the Las Vegas City and you blame me for working for a criminal. I am afraid I will have to have your badge for his one..." he was saying.

Steven shook his head glaring now. "Bull shit, Birnbraum! You are not firing Kris for this! We have it from Soundwave! You are a dirty son of a bitch who has been working with a dangerous drug lord! You, sir, are under arrest! We already talked to the Mayor, Birnbraum! He is on his way here now! He is furious!" He snapped.

For a long time, Birnbraum was quiet before he sighed and buried his face into his hands. He looked highly stressed out and with good reason. "I didn't have a choice, guys. I owed Xander a lot of money because of loans. He would have killed me and my family if I hadn't done it." He sad now quite miserably.

Steven ad Kris shook their heads before straightening up. They knew what kind of sorry state their former boss was in now.

"Birnbraum, you are under arrest. You have the right to remain silent and anything you do or say will be held against you. There will be an investigation against you for your secret affairs with a criminal." Steven said as he pulled out hand cuffs.

Birnbraum smiled bitterly as he stood up. "We are already in the department, Steven. You can just take me to the cells." He told him. "I won't resist. And I will confess everything before the judge."

Steven nodded before motioning to Birnbraum to follow. Kris watched them go but stiffened when her former boss turned around to look at her.

"Oh, Kris. Jake is sleeping in the spare office. But Kylee left with a few friends. I thought it would be all right since she was cleared of her own charges." Birnbraum told her.

"What?! Birns, you bastard! I didn't want her to go anywhere!" Kris exclaimed before groaning. "And I can't even go anywhere. The mayor wanted to talk to me."

Steven sighed, shaking his head. "You can go, Kris. Why don't you and Barricade go. I will cover you." He told her.

Kris grimaced but nodded as she tapped his arm in gratitude and hurried out. Shenrushed outside where Barricade, Soundwave and Prowl were, looking rushed. "Barricade, Kylee is gone. Can you track her by her phone?" She asked sounding worried.

Barricade groaned his engines. "Yeah. But not as well as Soundwave can." He turned his tires a little as if looking to the large Con. "Soundwave?"

There was a pause as the large Command vehicle hummed. "Affirmative. Location of Kylee Hepherr: sending coordinates to Barricade." Soundwave spoke.

"Thanks, Soundwave. Barricade? Do I need to ask?" Kris asked looking at her partner.

"No." Barricade snorted out before swinging his door open for her. "Come on. Let's go get your kid." Kris nodded before hurrying to jumping in. She buckled up and the two were off.

On the way, Barricade dialed Kylee's number and waited for her to pick up.

Finally she did. And it didn't sound good.

"Hell...hello?" Kylee asked, sounding very shaky and as if she had been crying.

Barricade nearly stalled himself, slowing down a notch. He could pick up stress in Kylee's voice as if she was under a lot of it. "Kylee, this is Barricade. What's wrong? Where are you?" He asked as he still drove.

"Barri-Barricade? Oh! Th-Thank god! Barricade, can you come get me? Ple-Please! I need your help!" Kylee said sounding desperate.

Immediately, Barricade picked up his speed and switched on his lights and siren. He did not like the sound of Kylee's voice. Something was wrong. "Kylee, what's wrong? What happened?!" He demanded, ignorin Kris as she tried asking him what was going on.

"I met up with some friends! They were talking about a party and I wanted to go! I know I should have waited for mom but I knew she would have said no! God, I am so stupid!" Kylee began crying.

"Kylee! What happened?!" Barricade ordered.

"I...I came to the party and my boyfriend is here! He was drunk, Barricade! He...he...he attacked me!" Kylee cried before there came a loud bang and she screamed in fright, makin Barricade tense up. "Oh, god! He's found me! Barricade! Help me! Please! I am at...!"

"I know where you are at! Where are you at the designation?!" Barricade barked as he picked up speed and began swerving around traffic to get there faster.

"I am...! Mike, stop it! Please just stop!" Kylee shouted as the banging continued. "I am in a bathroom! I locked the door but he is trying to get in!"

"Kylee! I am approaching! Hold tight!" Barricade ordered as he swerved around a corner and down a street with large houses. He could see one house where there were a lot of cars and loud music playing.

"Barricade! What is going on?! Where is Kylee?!" Kris demanded as she held tight to the seat.

Barricade didn't answer as he sped up to the house as close as he could get. He slammed on his brakes then ad activated his holoform outside his real body and booked it for the house. He didn't need to be told that Kris was right behind him as he ran for the house, pushing and shoving his way inside. He ignored the angry shouts of teenagers as he listened hard over the loud music. It was not easy at all.

Growling, Barricade's human eyes flashed and there came a loud pop as the music suddenly died, making more shout in alarm. "Shut the frag up!" He roared, his voice taking a more metallic sound and making several jump.

Then he heard the banging from upstairs.

Immediately Barricade ran for them and jumped stairs as he went up them with Kris right behind him.

Upon reaching a hall way, he found a tall black man slamming his fists ad feet against a door where he could hear Kylee screaming and crying. He did not waste time to rush right up to the man ad grab his shoylders, yanking him back.

"What the fuck?! Get offa me, man!" The man yelled now struggling and fighting with Barricade.

However, Barricade snarled as he yanked him into another room where two teens had been making out. He kept a painfully tight hold on him as he dragged him towards a window. "So, you like attacking femmes, do you, aftpipe?! Especially one of my femmes?!" He snarled as he threw the window open and smashing the glass in the process. "Let's see how you like it?!"

And with that, he threw the man out the window, and shouted as he fell.

But before the man could hit the ground, something caught him by one leg and held him twenty feet in the air. The man, Mike cursed and screamed for help before he turned and yelped to find two glaring red lights baring into him. "Oh, shit!" He gasped.

Barricade deactivated his holoform and glared hard at the human in his claws. "Kylee! Come to the window!" He snarled, making many people come outside to watch in fear.

A moment later, Kris and a crying Kylee came to the window looking out with shock. They couldn't believe what they were seeing. "Bar-Barricade?" The teen girl asked shakily.

Barricade continued to glare at Mike, who was pleading to be let go. "Shut up, human!" He snarled at him before looking at Kylee. "Did he hurt you?" He demanded.

Kylee shakily nodded. "He...he just slapped me. That's all. He didn't...he didn't ra..." she was saying.

But Barricade heard enough as he activated his spinning claws making people shout in fear and alarm. He snarled at Mike who began crying ad pissing himself. "You apologize to Kylee right now! Or you will find yourself without a head!" He demanded before swirling Mike to face Kylee.

"I...! I'm sorry, Kylee! I swear I won't do it again! I won't hurt you again!" Mike cried.

Kylee sniffed, wiping her tears away before shaking her head. "No, you won't. I am through with you, Mike! I am done! You asshole!" She snapped finding courage.

Barricade swung Mike around again, glaring at him. "You hear that?! She is done! Now, you will return with me to the Police Department! You are under arrest for Domestic Violence and attempted rape! Say a word and I will knock you on your aft! Do you understand me?!" He snarled.

Mike trembled but nodded. "Ye-yes, sir!" He cried.

Baricade nodded before quickly making a transformation and stuffing Mike into his back seat. His holoform reactivated and he looked up at Kris and Kylee, who were hugging each other. But as if they sensed his eyes on them, they looked back. "Kylee, are you all right?" He asked up to her.

Kylee smiled at him through her tears and nodded. "I am okay. Thank you, Barry." She said gratefully.

Barricade only nodded to her before turning with a look of disgust on his face as he looked at Mike. "You did not just lubercated on my seat!" He snarled furiously while Mike was apologizing rapidly.

"Hey, who is that? Is he an Autobot?" The teen girl who had been making out with her boyfriend asked Kylee.

Kylee smiled with Kris, shaking her head. "No. He's my family's Guardian." She said proudly.

The other girl nodded with a big smile as she looked back at the artificial police officer. "Cool. Where can I get one of those? You are so lucky." She said before scowling at her boyfriend when he scoffed in offense.

Kris smiled with her daughter, shaking her head. "Yeah. We are." She said hugging Kylee. And she truly meant it. Her family was lucky to have Barricade.


	7. How Far You'll Go

The Hepherr family now meant a lot to Barricade and everyone saw that. Prowl saw it. Soundwave saw it. The entire police force saw it. They knew that the family of three had dug their way into Barricade's spark and latched onto it.

Of course, he wouldn't openly admit it, but he really did care about them. He wanted to see them be safe and never harmed.

Never in his life Barricade didn't think he would find someone to care about other than his team. Or at least the last one of them. He would never admit it to them but the Race Track Patrol had been his family. Groundhog, Rollerforce, and Motorhead were his completely out of their processors; well maybe not Groundhog. He was the most sane bot out of the four, really. But they had been his brothers. His brothers that he never truly appreciated while as a Decepticon.

Until now. Until he had lost two of them and now had only one left.

And that was why he told Jake and Kylee about them and his bond with them when they asked. He told them about his sister, Nightshade and why she was not around anymore.

Jake and Kylee took it harder than he thought they would when he told them that his sister was dead. They cried for him before rushing to his Saleen Mustang form and hugged him. He had been so surprised but touched that they would care like that.

Kris had known though. But even she hugged the car in their drive way, which did make it look rather odd to neighbors when they saw the three hugging a cop car and crying over it.

Still, none of them cared. None of them minded that they looked odd. They just wanted that moment of peace to last.

Eventually, Kris, Jake and Kylee invited Barricade inside to have family night, claiming he was family. He was honored, but he didn't show it by just grumbling about it. He didn't want them to know how much they meant to him. It was probably a bad idea letting them get as close as it was. He was still a Decepticon and he did have some pretty nasty enemies out there, even among his own fraction.

While Kylee and Jake were in the kitchen, banging around and preparing popcorn for the movie they were going to watch, Kris and Barricade sat on the couch, flipping through the Blockbuster movies they had rented.  
"Hey, Kris." Barricade rumbled watching her as she tried to decide between The Avengers and The Dark Knight to watch.

"Hmm?"

Barricade paused, scanning the kitchen for Jake and Kylee before looking back at Kris. "What happened to the kids' creator, John? Why isn't he around anymore?" He asked, carefully.

Tensing up, Kris looked wide eyed at him, not believing he had actually asked that. She didn't really want him to know about that man. But...

Sighing, Kris put the movies down and turned to face Barricade, one leg folded under her and her hands together in her lap. "He...John and I are divorced. We have been for about two years now. We were partners once. We were both cops before and after Kylee was born. And even after Jake. We even worked with Jim when he was still around. The three of us were best friends in high school, close as could be. Problem was, Jim was a major playboy. He could charm any woman. Any woman. Even me." She shook her head when Barricade narrowed his eyes in wonder at her. "I never slept with Jim. Ever. But...I have kissed him before. So...I guess in a way, I cheated on John. But by a kiss. And when it happened, Jim and I immediately regretted it and we swore we would never do it again."

"But you did." Barricade said more of a question.

Kris slowly nodded, regret in her eyes as she looked away. "I loved John, heart, body and soul. He was my match. But...he did have...anger problems. He always did. There were times where we would be up late, fighting. But I still loved him. However, Jim and I somewhat secretly saw each other but we never, ever got serious. I was very wrong about doing that with him. I should have known better but...Jim made me feel so good when I was with him. I felt younger, sexier. John made me feel hot and all but...it was never the same as it was with Jim." She wrapped her arms around herself, as if shielding herself from internal pain. "I was very naive to play around like that. Stupid. What made it worse one day, Kylee was the one who caught me kissing Jim. She told her father about it and...in a way, John rightfully flipped out." She explained, her eyes falling with more grief.

Barricade frowned, before resting his arm on the back of the couch and rubbed comforting circles on Kris' shoulder. He could see she was in pain remembering her bad past. He knew she needed comfort. "What did he do?" He asked softly.

Kris shook her head as she lift her eyes and met his dark and red ones. "John..." she paused, licking her lips. "He...uh...he always waited till the kids went to school...before...he..." she winced painfully.

Human eyes flashing a bright angry red, Barricade caught on. "He began beating you." He finished for her.

Sighing, Kris nodded before she curled her legs up close to her body, wrapping her arms around them. "He became a drunk. He would start drinking heavily and even did some drugs. He was so angry. He began beating me every time the kids went to school. He wouldn't do it when they were home and he sure wouldn't hit my face. It would leave bruises and if Jim had known, he would have flipped out. So would have Steven. Steven and I are close friends but never that close like Jim and I were." She said thickly. "John wouldn't talk to Jim about it. He broke off their friendship but he never told him why. He threatened me if I told him or anyone, he would beat me until I was dead. So I never told anyone."

"Why?" Barricade demanded but softly.

Kris shook her head as she gave him a sad smile. "At the time, I thought I deserved it. Maybe I did. I cheated on him by kissing another man. I believed I really was a slut. I was also very scared of him. Terrified. I couldn't even do my job right because of him and I made mistakes." She said before shrugging. "Any way, the kids didn't find out about the beatings until after Jim did. It was the worst possible time too. Jim, John and I were on an undercover operation, trying to tail Dirge Xander when Jim saw a bruise on my back while had been putting on a bullet proof vest. He found out and eventually confronted John about it. We blew the job when they started coming to blows.

"Eventually, Birnbraum was the one to suspend us and demanded I do something about John. Jim was the one who convinced me to divorce John." Kris went on. "But it wasn't what John thought it would be. He thought I was leaving him for Jim. And he beat me in front of the kids, not caring they knew or not. I had to put a restraining order on him. At the time, Jim had also landed himself in hot water. He had slept with Birnbraum's wife. And that got him shot and transferred out of Las Vegas. So he couldn't be around to help me when I needed him."

"And? Where is he now?" Barricade his tone hard.

Kris shook her head as she shrugged. "He is still in Las Vegas but he never comes around anymore. Not even to see his kids. He started thinking that they weren't his, so he doesn't really care about them any more. It hurts the kids but they've...they've moved on, I think. They don't really want to see him. Not after scaring the shit out of them when he beat on me. There has been a few times where we've seen each other and we've fought. But at the most part, we tried to just avoid each other." She told him. "So it don't matter with him anymore. He is now a bouncer for a strip club since he cannot be a cop again. I don't think he cares. Anyway, I blew it with John. I deserved getting..."

"No." Barricade interrupted firmly and seriously as he reached over and placed a hand on the back of her neck, giving her a gentle shake. "No femme ever deserves something like that. You made a grave mistake by kissing other men. But you learned from it. You will never do it again because of your children. Your ex-husband should have done things differently, not beat you to slag. He should have at least talked to you not beat you."

Kris smiled faintly before she leaned closer to him to hug him. "Thank you for asking. I never really...talked about it. With anyone. Not even with Steven. I...I kind of feel better getting it off my chest. Thank you."

Barricade smiled faintly as he returned the embrace before pulling away from her. He paused, staring into Kris' eyes as she stared back. It was strange but...talking about something like that made him want to just get closer to her. He really wanted to see what it would be like to actually...well, kiss her, really. He knew he was Cybertronian and she was a human. He was a Decepticon. He really shouldn't even be thinking about a human like that. He was suppose to hate them. Despise them. But he just really couldn't find it in his spark to do that.

It seemed the same with Kris because her eyes flicked down towards his mouth before she started leaning forward, her hand reaching up to touch the side of his face.

"Mom!"

Barricade and Kris tore their selves away from each other, their faces hot with embarrassment. They couldn't believe they had nearly done that! That was something that had never happened with the Decepticon warrior. He had never had such a strong urge like that. He had wanted to kiss Kris!

However, it had been Kylee who broke them out of the strange spell of attraction as she came tearing into the living room.

"Yeah, Kylee? What's wrong?" Kris asked, her face still hot and red.

Kylee didn't seem to notice at first as she held up a black smoldering bag of burnt popcorn. "Jake burned the last bag of popcorn!" She complained.

"Did not!" Jake hollered from the kitchen.

Kris ad Barricade had to smile while rolling their eyes as they looked at Kylee raving. "Okay, okay. I can probably run to the store ad get some more." She said starting to climb off the couch.

But Barricade grabbed her wrist and tugged her back down. He smirked when she yelped and fell against him but he paid no attention. "No, you stay here. I will go. I am faster. You go ahead and start the movie. I can be back in a mega-click." He told her before his holoform flickered off and out of sight. His engine revved loudly and he was obviously out of the drive way and down the road before any of the three could blink.

Kylee couldn't help but stare at her mother's red, flushed face before she began to slowly smile. "Mom," she said in an accusing way. "What's going on? Were...were you and Barry kissing?"

"What?!" Kris and Jake both yelped now looking wide eyed at her. "No! I wasn't!"

"Uh-huh." Kylee teased, now laughing. "Your face being red says otherwise."

Jake hollered and whooped as he began jumping up and down. "Does that me Barricade is your boyfriend now? Can I call him dad?! Please, please, please!"

Kris huffed in irritation before standing up and shaking her head. "No! He is not my boyfriend! We weren't kissing! And no, you can't call him dad, Jake!" She said as she began making her way to the kitchen to open a window to get rid of the smell of burning popcorn. "Besides, he probably doesn't want that any way. Why would he...?"

"HA! You like him, don't you! You do like Barricade! You sound disappointed! So that means...!" Kylee began cheering with Jake as they followed their mother.

Kris rolled her eyes as she looked over her shoulder at them. "Okay, maybe I do. But that doesn't mean he likes me or us. After all..." she was saying.

"He does like us, Mom! If he didn't, he wouldn't put up with us! Remember?! He is Decepti..." Jake was cheering before he froze, his eyes growing wide as he looked past Kris into the kitchen.

Kris frowned as she looked at him before noticing the horror on Kylee's face too. "What? Is it Barry? Is he...?" She was asking as she turned to look in the kitchen.

But she froze, her entire being tense as she immediately slapped her hands outward and against the door frame as if shielding her kids. "You! Why are you here?!" She demanded, her tone now hard but trembling with fear as she looked at the intruder in her house.

Barricade was grumbling, his foot tapping impatiently as he waited in the slagging line at the small convenient store. He had came to get a box of popcorn and now he was waiting for the miserable human to dig through a large bag of junk, looking for her slagging money bag.

"Oh, god. I hope I didn't leave it at home. Hold on. I am sure it's here, somewhere." The woman said after five fragging minutes of searching her damn purse for money!

"Argh." Barricade groaned, trying his best not to crush the popcorn in aggravation. "Come on, human." He was ignored.

Just then, Barricade heard a ringing from his com link, making him frown. He reached up and tapped his own forehead, his eyes began glowing as he connected the incoming call. "Barricade, here." He said seriously, seeing the ID scan was from Steven and Prowl.

*Barricade! Where are you?! Are you with Kris and the kids?!* Prowl immediately demanded.

Grounding his engines and making sure the Autostick in the aft heard it, Barricade shook his head, ignoring the weird looks he was getting for talking out loud to no one particular. "No, they are at home. I ran to the store to get pop..." he was growling.

*What?! They are at home?! Barricade! Get to the house now!* Steven yelled over Prowl's line.

Barricade tensed up, standing up full now. There was something wrong. He could hear it in Perry's voice. "Why?! What's wrong?! What happened?!" He demanded loudly now digging into his pockets and throwing a green twenty dollar bill at the store clerk before hurrying towards the door.

*We just got a call from Kris' neighbors! There is a disturbance from the house, Barricade! The neighbors next to Kris and the kids said they heard crashes and glass breaking as well as screams! From Kris' house!* Steven yelled.

His fake and real body went rigid before Barricade threw the box of popcorn into his open door and he was speeding down the street after deactivating his holoform. "What do you mean Kris' house?! I was just fragging there fifteen mega-clicks ago!" He snarled as he screeched his tires as he went faster.

*We are on our way, our selves! We will be there in five minutes! Just get there and check on Kris and the kids!* Prowl ordered sharply before he roughly cut the connection.

Barricade swore as he sped down the streets, his sirens screaming as he went. Nothing better have happened to his humans or he was going to be pissed!

It was only one minute and forty seconds later before Barricade screeched to a halt in front of the house. He could already see that something was wrong from inside. The lights were flickering and it looked like someone had thrown one of the chairs at the front window shattering it.

Immediately, his holoform was activated and he was racing for the door. He didn't have to throw it open because it was already open when he got there.

"Kris! Kylee! Jake!" Barricade roared as he shoved the door open and entered what looked like a war zone. The entire front room was trashed. Glass was broken, the couch tipped over. The TV was smashed.

There was blood on the carpet.

Seeing the blood, Barricade's spark nearly stalled as he quickly bent down and placed a finger in the still warm splotch. He ran a scan on the DNA and his vents caught when the results came back as Kris' blood. "Fragging Primus...! Kris! Kylee! Jake!" He roared now sending scans throughout the house for his humans.

Thumping of feet was soon heard and Barricade whirled around to see Jake running into the room, tears streaming down his cheeks and a growing bruise on the side of his face. He had a growing black eye.

"Barricade!" Jake cried before throwing himself into his Guardian's arms. "Bar-Barricade!" He began crying hard.

Barricade pulled Jake into a tight, protective hug, feeling him shaking. "Jake! What happened?! Where is Kylee and your mom?!" He demanded.

Jake didn't pull away from raised a shaking had and pointed towards Kylee's room.

Keeping an arm around Jake, Barricade practically carried him into the back room, where he froze in the door way at the sight before him. He found the girls all right.

Kylee was sitting beside Kris, who was lying on Jake's bed, wiping blood from her mother's mouth, where someone clearly had split her lip. She was a little roughed up, herself, Kylee was. She had a growing bruise on her cheek and her braided hair was more like a rat's nest now. Her shirt was torn, having her shoulders revealed and black bra straps. She was crying like Jake but she looked ten times better than Kris did.

Kris was a mess. Someone had beaten her pretty good. She had a fat, bloody lip and her hair was completely wild. She was clearly going to have a black eye. Her now disheveled pink tank top was slightly ripped, showing her white bra but Barricade honestly didn't care to see her under clothes. He was more worried about the deep cut in her arm, which Kylee had wrapped a bloody towel around it. She had tears flowing down her face, mixing with blood.

But seeing Barricade, Kris cringed in shame before looking away. It was like she couldn't bear to see him, or it was the opposite.

Barricade, still carrying Jake, hurried forward and bent over Kris, carefully taking her chin in his fingers and forced her to look up into his blazing red eyes. He looked furious. "Who did this to you?!" He growled viciously.

"Barricade, don't..." Kris spoke with a cracked voice.

"Tell me!" Barricade snarled but kept a gentle grip on her face. He almost regretted snapping when Kris flinched away from him. "Who did this, Kris?!"

"It was...it wa-was Dad, Barricade. John Hepherr. He came...he came in right after you left." Kylee sniffed heavily.

"Ky-Kylee!" Kris reprimanded her weakly.

Barricade growled viciously before jerking his head around when Prowl and Steven came running in. They immediately froze at the sight of Kris and the kids. They gaped at the sight that Kris and her kids was even in.

"Wh-what happened?!" Prowl asked, his human eyes wide as he looked Kris and the kids over.

Barricade growled a very feral growl, his eyes flashing bright red. He carefully pried Jake off of him and pushed him to sit down next to his mother. "What happened to them is what will NEVER happen again! Get them to the hospital and checked out. Get Kris stitched up! Prowl, you better get Soundwave to come after me very quick!Because he is the only one who can stop me from tearing John Hepherr apart and blasting his pathetic fleshy pieces into cyber dust!" He snarled before his holoform winked out of existence.

Prowl stiffened before cursing as he too flashed out of sight. "Barricade! No!" He shouted as he went after him as fast as he could, leaving Steven to take care of Kris, Kylee and Jake. He was already making the call for an ambulance to take them to the hospital.

It took a lot of effort to even keep up with Barricade but Prowl was right behind him as both police cruisers sped down the streets of Las Vegas. It was more like the Autobot chasing the Decepticon to stop him from making the biggest mistake. Barricade was fully aware that Prowl was right behind him but he ignored him as his engine roared in fury, speeding down the strip with his sirens and lights flashing. He was going to MURDER that piece of slagging flesh when he found him! John Hepherr was going to die!

It took some effort to even find out where the sorry son of a glitch was even at. But after hacking into the Las Vegas phone companies and searching through all one million people's names, he found him.

The son of a glitch was at his work place, Talk of the Town, a strip joint that clearly exactly what its name was suppose to be.

And Barricade almost made it to the parking lot, with every intention of just speeding right into the building, trashing it completely and tearing it a part to find John Hepherr. He would have done it too.

If not for the sudden appearance of several lit up appendages shooting out of nowhere and wrapping around his car form, forcing him to a screeching halt. His tires left black marks on the pavement as he tried to kick it into high gear and escape his higher commander's grip but he couldn't budge.

"GET YOUR WIRES OFF OF ME! SOUNDWAVE! I'M GONNA KILL THAT FRAGGING PIECE OF ROTTEN MEAT!" Barricade roared as his tires squealed and smoke began trailing off them and the road.

There was the sound of a transformation before the large form of Soundwave stood up and moved closer, keeping Barricade from reaching the club. "Barricade, stop. Now. That is an order." The Spy Master warned darkly as he stood over his fellow Decepticon.

"FRAG YOU! LET GO OF ME! I AM GONNA...!" Barricade was roaring.

Soundwave jabbed one sparking tentacle right into Barricade's grill, zapping him and making him yelp. "You will calm down right now or I will send you into a temporary recharge stasis mode." Soundwave growled as he bent over the police cruiser. "That was a low level shock, Barricade. Do not make me increase the electric currents and zap you into recharge. Calm. Down."

There was a moment of screeching tires before Barricade clicked them loudly ad stopped spinning them. He just sat there, growling viciously and cursing. His whole frame was shaking with fury as he just sat there. He wanted to destroy something, someone. But he was being denied that.

A loud revving engine approached and both Cons looked up to see Prowl quickly driving up. He had been gunning it pretty fast to catch up to Barricade and eventually did. He stopped near the two, activating his holoform just to glare at Barricade, whom he felt the glare return. "Barricade, you have broken numerous human laws as well as..." he was already starting.

"Oh, shut up! If you were just as pissed as I am, you would have...!" Barricade snarled, even as Soundwave slowly retracted his many arms from his furious frame.

"I am, Barricade!" Prowl snapped back, startling the Decepticon into shutting up. It was not every day that you got to hear Prowl, of all mechs to snap back like that. The Autobot's holoform glared hard at the Decpticon, his fists clenched. "Believe me, Barricade, I am very angry right now. Not at you, at the human, John Hepherr. What he has done to his own sparklings is enough to make me even decide allowing you to go in there and retrieve him. But you will not kill him. Do you understand that if you take a human life while in the alliance with us, you will be breaking your new oath to not harming humans? You will be forfeiting your alliance to the Autobots and Optimus will have no choice but to have us hunt you down?" He asked very sternly.

"Oh, like I really care about his fragging alliance scrap! I don't...!" Barricade was growling.

"If you didn't, you wouldn't have torn through the city, looking for John Hepherr to punish him for what he did." Prowl said firmly, again startling the Decepticon warrior. He shook his head as he relaxed his holoform. "You care about the alliance because you care about Kris and her kids. But if you go tearing into that building, harming humans just for one human, you will not get another chance. If you truly care about Kris, Kylee and Jake, you do this the right way."

There was a long moment of an unsettling silence before Barricade slumped on his axels and took deep vents. He knew Prowl was right. He needed to calm down. He couldn't tear through the building like he wanted to and risk harming other humans just for the scrapheap human, John Hepherr.

Feeling more relaxed, Barricade activated his holoform and faced Prowl's. "All right, Autobot. We will do this your way. But do not expect me to be nice to the fragger." He growled, his head lifting higher.

And for once in their lives, Barricade and Soundwave were treated with a rather dry and cynical smirk from Prowl. "Wouldn't dream of forcing you being nice to this human, Barricade. Now let's go get him." He said, his vocoder suddenly changing to dark and firm.

The Talk Of The Town strip club was full of loud booming music and men who watched as half dressed women danced around poles. It was a full house tonight and the three Cybertronians in their holoforms knew that it was going to be hard to confront John Hepherr without making a scene.

But in all honesty, none of them cared. Not even Prowl, for once.

The three were stopped at the door by a large black man, whom looked rather familiar to the Autobot. Barricade frowned when he saw the Autostick's human form raised his eyebrows at the man, and surprisingly, the human did the same.

"Hey! I know you!" The bouncer said, his eyes rather wide with recognition. "You came in the Exotic Desert Rose club in Carson, didn'ja? With a strange lot, who ended up tearing the place a part."

Prowl grimaced as he straightened up like a soldier. "In deed. I apologize for that incident. It was not our intention for doing that. We were looking for someone and things didn't turn out the way we wanted." He said in apology.

The bouncer snorted but shrugged. "Yeah, I kno', man. I saw those renob suits pulled guns first. I knew something was up with them when they came in. I should'a checked them for weapons." He narrowed his eyes as he looked the three gruff 'men' over. "You ain't carrying, are ya? Cause if you are..." he was saying.

Barricade growled and would have said something about this man holding them back but he was shushed when Prowl raised a hand and clamped it over his mouth without even looking at him much to his annoyance.

"Unfortunately, we are." Prowl said before pulling back his jacket and revealed his police badge. "And I swear we won't, as you say, trash the club this time. We are here for one man. If you can point him out, we will take him outside without raising a scene."

The bouncer tensed up but slowly nodded. He wasn't about to argue with a cop. "Who're you looking for?" He asked now down to business. "And what'd he do? And before you tell me I can't know, I better tell you that I can't let you in if you came to hustle a customer. I can lose my job if I let you do that."

Barricade tried to yank his head back to snap at the human but it was Soundwave's turn to shush him by grabbing him from behind.

"We understand. We are looking for an employee named John Hepherr. And I am afraid he has done something along the lines of domestic violence." Prowl said firmly.

Again the bouncer had tensed up. "John? He is sort of a buddy of mine, man. He is here but..." he was saying.

This time, Barricade wouldn't be silenced. He reached up and ripped Soundwave's hand off of his mouth, snarling. "He beat the shit out of his ex-wife and his kids, human! Now tell me where he is before I do rip this place a part to finding him!" He growled.

The bouncer frowned at him, completely stunned. But as he let Barricade's threat set in, he grew serious and stood up, proving he was taller and larger than the Cybertronians' human forms. At least taller than Prowl and Barricade. He was about the same size as Soundwave. And it looked like he was about to start trouble.

The three tensed up, expecting it. They really hoped he wasn't about to because it would mean trouble for him.

But the Bouncer shook his head as he turned away from them and whistled louder towards a large white man, who was immediately hurrying over and trying to beef himself up.

"Hey, Marcus. Trouble? Need help kicking these shitheads out?" The white bouncer growled, practically flexing his muscles.

Barricade growled, his eyes narrowing dangerously. He dared the human to say that again or try and stop him from finding John Hepherr. He was just itching for a fight right now and he didn't give a slag who got in the way as long as he got his servos on that pathetic human who dared to harm his humans.

The black man, Marcus, shook his head, his face very hard. "No, Asper. We ain't kicking them out. We are kicking Johnny Boy's out. He has done something really stupid and I have had enough of his jack. Watch the fucking door. I am gonna go with these cops and get his ass." He growled before jerking his head to the three Bots for them to follow.

Barricade, Prowl and Soundwave were surprised by the sudden outcome but they weren't about to argue. They quickly followed after Marcus.

"Excuse me. But why are...?" Prowl was asking.

But Marcus seemed to know what he was about to ask. He shook his head as he lead the three through the crowded pathway towards the back. "I am the Assistant Manager, here. If one of our employees caused trouble like beating women and kids, I ain't having it. I have known John a few years now. He is an angry dude. I knew he despised his wife. He was always ranting about her. Calling her a bitch slut. But I never figured he would do something stupid like this." He said gravely. "John was up to something tonight. I knew he was. He never drinks tequila unless he is itching for a fight. But a woman, his cheating ex, or not, and kids, bull shit. I ain't having that in my bar. Now come on. He is in the back."

Barricade had to smirk at that, even though he didn't like the remark about Kris. But he was amused by this human.

Marcus lead them into the back, which was a locker room. There were a few dancers back there but no one paid attention to them or in reverse. The bouncer and the three bots were only looking at a black man, who was nursing scratches on his face.

There was no doubt that this was John Hepherr.

Soundwave and Prowl both grabbed a hold of Barricade to make sure he didn't do anything stupid. They could see he was itching to start something. But they would let Marcus do the talking for now.

Marcus, however, immediately pointed at John, looking furious. "John! Pack your shit and get out of my club! You're fired!" He snapped.

John Hepherr's head jerked up and he looked flabbergasted. He had not been expecting that at all. Nor was he expecting two pairs of glowing red glares and one pair of stern blue ones on him. "What?! What do you mean I am fired?!" He demanded now standing up and looking furious.

Marcus jabbed his thumb towards the Cybertronians. "Three reasons, John! One! Two! And three! Three cops here to arrest your dumb ass!" He snapped while pointing at each of the three at his every word. "You know why they are here! I warned you not to do something stupid and beating on your ex-wife and your kids was stupid! Now get out or I will help these gentlemen help you out!" He snapped.

John Hepherr stared at the three before he huffed in disgust and rage. "The fucking slut called her band of merry men, huh? So let me guess? You fuckweeds sleeping with the bitch too?" He snarled, viciously.

Barricade began to growl a vicious feral sound, his holoform flickering and surprising the bouncers.

"Barricade." Both Prowl and Soundwave said warningly.

Barricade growled but shook his head as he glared murderously at the human before him. "Oh, relax. I won't kill him." He growled before moving forward, his fists clenched. "I think I will just hit him once."

"Bring it, asshole! I used to be one of the toughest cops in this fucking city! I will mess your shit up!" John Hepherr snarled.

There was a loud crash and a yelp of pain as John Hepherr went flying out of the club and hit the road. He was scraped up pretty good after getting thrown like that. He honestly couldn't believe this! He couldn't believe that Marcus would actually throw him out of the club he had been working at for two years now!

Nonetheless, it had been Marcus who intervened before Barricade could even touch John. He had grabbed him and dragged his sorry ass out of the club with three illusionary beings following after, calmly.

And as soon as they reached the door, out went John Hepherr.

"If I ever see your women and child beating face in the Talk again, the cops will be your least worries, John!" Marcus snapped, dusting his hands off as he stepped to the side to let the Cybers out.

"Believe me, human. We aren't just any cops." Barricade growled as he marched over to John.

"Huh?" Marcus asked frowning after him. "What do you mean, man? And why do you keep calling me...!"

He got his answer a second later when Barricade flickered out of view, as well as Prowl and Soundwave. And three large robots shifted out of their vehicle forms.

"Oh. Shit. Dude, John. You just had to piss off Autobots, didn'ja?" Marcus said in realization.

"Not an Autobot." Barricade growled as he towered over a now terrified John Hepherr. "A Decepticon."

Prowl and Soundwave moved closer to their partner, ready to stop him if it got out of control. They knew Barricade was furious enough to harm the human but they couldn't let him.

John Hepherr shrank, raising his hands. "Fu-fuck." He whimpered.

Barricade nodded as he glared down at him. "Took the words right out of my vocoder, you measly meat sack." He raised a fist and slammed it down beside John, who yelped and stumbled onto his ass. "If you ever come near Kris and MY kids again, I will crush you! The Autostick, over there, and my Commanding Officer will not be able to save you in time! Do you understand me?! If you ever lay your filthy hands on MY FAMILY again, I will pulverize you! Do I make myself clear?!" He snarled.

John trembled in fear but was quick to nodding. "Ye-yeah! I read you!" He yelped.

Barricade sharply nodded before standing up straight and moving back. "Prowl, get him out of here before I change my processor!" He snarled before turning sharply and making a swift transformation. He was down the street before Prowl could even ask him where he was going.

"He is going to Kris and the kids." Soundwave answered for his fellow Decepticon.

Prowl nodded in understanding before looking back at John Hepherr, who chose now the purge his stomach after looking a Death mech in the face. "You are lucky." He said dryly.

John looked up at him, still scared. "Wh-why?" He asked shakily.

Prowl gave him a dark look as he folded his arms. "He chose not to crush you. And I almost would have just let him and take the consequences that would follow." He growled in a very dead way.

Barricade walked through the hospital doors, still steamed about what happened. He really had wanted to smash that human scum into flesh jelly. But Prowl had been right. If he had, he would never get to see Kris and the kids again. He would have been on the run from the Autobots and his own fraction. Not to mention the Minicons and their traitorous leader, Galvatron. He really needed to cool his turbos.

The first thing he spotted was Jake sitting in the hall way with Kylee standing over him. Both looked terrible. They had had a lot to deal with that day so Barricade couldn't blame them.

At his approach, both looked up before scampering over and throwing their arms around him. He returned the shaky embraces with his own, keeping his own protective embrace around them.

"Barry, did you kill him?" Jake asked into Barricade's chest.

"No." Barricade answered, more calm than he felt.

Both Kylee and Jake looked up at him with tears in their eyes. It looks that Barricade did not want to see ever again. "Why not?" The oldest asked.

Barricade frowned at her but shook his head. "It wouldn't have been right. He lives because he is a human. I can't take his life because I am not." He said grimly.

"Don't matter to us. He could have ki-killed mom." Jake said darkly.

Barricade pulled away before bending down to Jake's height so to look into his eyes at a level. "Jake, it was wrong for him to hurt you and your mother. Believe me, I want to kill your dad. I am shaking with anger because I didn't kill him. But...if I did, I would be losing you, kids. I would not be welcomed to be around you anymore." He sighed before lifting his eyes up and looking at Kylee. "You know why he was angry, right?" He asked her.

Kylee wrapped her arms around herself and nodded as she lowered her head. "Yeah. I do. Mom made a big mistake. But it wasn't like she was sleeping around with Uncle Jim. She just kissed him. Yeah, that was wrong but...it gave my dad no reason to act like that. He should have never beat on Mom. Ever! Jake and I already forgave her for it! So why couldn't he?! It was wrong of her, but it was just as wrong of him to beating her up all of the time! We were suppose to be a family! Just like how we are now! With you and Mom and Jake! You are family!" She said tersely.

Barricade nodded before standing up and offering his hand to her, which she allowed him to take. He pulled her back into his arms, as well as Jake. "That's why I didn't kill him. " He said before holding their hands and leading them into the hospital room where Kris was lying in a bed.

Kris looked up through one clean eye before smiling faintly. "Jake, Kylee, can you go find out when we can go home? I need to speak to Barry." She said weakly.

Jake and Kylee nodded as they left and Barricade stepped in, closing the door.

Watching him, Kris rearranged herself to sitting up. She let out a deep sigh, touching her bandaged arm. "Did you kill him?" She asked quietly.

Barricade held back a snort but shook his head as he went to stand next to her. "No. I didn't. But I sure wanted to. He had no right to hurt you. Or the kids." He said firmly.

Kris smiled faintly before reaching for his hand and tugging him closer. "Thank you. You really are the best Guardian. I am so sorry you were pulled into this, though." She said sadly.

Barricade shook his head with a deep sigh, still quite aggravated with John Hepherr. "Don't be. I am glad I'm with you and the kids. You really have changed my point of view on humans, you know that, right?" He told her.

Kris smiled as she tightened her grip around his. She was just happy that he was there and not judging her as some might have. She knew she made mistakes but she wasn't going to do that with him. He was apart of her life as well as her kids. And welcomed to be too. "You know, I have a really bad habit." She said softly.

Barricade sat down next to her, holding her hand. "Oh? What's that?" He asked almost amused.

Kris looked up at him before pulling him closer. "Kissing bad guys." She said and then tugged him down so she could do just that. She kissed him.

Barricade only smirked as he returned the kiss before pulling back to looking into her eyes. "Who says I am a bad guy?" He asked smirking.

"You're a Decepticon, aren't you? At least you're my Decepticon." Kris said smirking back.

Barricade only grinned at her, shaking his head. He now understood why the damn Autobots liked humans so much. They were always full of surprises. "Damn straight I am."


	8. Leaving Las Vegas

Everything in the kitchen had stopped as soon as the words were out of Barricade's mouth and three pairs of eyes gaped at him as if he was some stranger that came bursting in, wearing a pink suit and bunny ears. Kris and her two kids could not believe what he had just said. It was like a joke he was playing on them and they were waiting for him to just laugh and say he was just kidding.

But it didn't come.

Barricade kept the grim look on his face as he gazed back at them. He hadn't been joking. He had been serious about what news he had brought to them. He didn't like it any more than they did. He didn't want to do this. He wanted to stay.

"Wait. You're...you're leaving? You can't leave! Barricade! But we need you! We need you here!" Jake cried out as he was already sounding as if he was in pain.

Barricade sighed heavily but shook his head as he went over and pulled Jake into a hug of comfort. "I'm sorry, Jake. But I have to leave. It was Starscream's request. Something happened back at the base and he needs me and Soundwave to return. Prowl's leaving too. He got the call from Prime about what happened while we were here." He told them.

"But Barry, we are a family now! Why do you need...!" Kylee was protesting.

Kris cleared her throat loudly before waving the two to leave the room. "Kylee, Jake, go get your school bags. We need to get going or you're going to be late for school." She told them and shushed them when they tried to protest them, giving them her stern 'Just do it' look. She waited till they were out of the room before frowning at Barricade. "What happened?" She asked firmly.

Barricade went over and leaned against the counter next to her, watching as she was getting a glass of water to take her pain killers for her arm. "The Autobots and our Decepticons got a lead on this organization called the Department. Apparently they really don't like us, aliens and are bending a lot of laws and rules just to harm us. Even hurting other human beings." He shook his head as he found interest in a scratch in the counter. "Anyway, they went to Kansas to follow the lead ad found a lab full of the Department's science experiments." He growled at the very thought of what Starscream had told him and Soundwave. "They had fifty sparklings they were experimenting on."

"Sparklings...? Oh! Yeah! Your kids, right?" Kris asked before frowning seriously. "They were hurting robot children? You have got to be kidding me! That's sick! Robot kids or not! And other humans!"

Barricade shook his head as he looked up and met her eyes. "The Department is not below to hurting people and children, Kris. They don't give a damn about anyone but their own ambitions and science research." He let out a huff. "Anyway, Starscream and the Autobots were too late to save the sparklings but two. And even they aren't looking good. They also found a Cybertronian body. Some guy named Lugnut, which the Autobots believed to be an Autobot. But he isn't. He was a Decepticon spy in the Autobot ranks. He was just pretending to be one of them. He is deactivated and Prime wants to hold a Deactivation Ceremony for him and the Sparklings. And some human who had been an Ex-Department Agent named Sean McCourie." He explained, touching the scratch in the counter.

Suddenly there was gasp and the glass shattered as it hit the kitchen floor.

Barricade whipped his head up in surprise only to see Kris gaping at him with her own shock. It was like he had said something that she knew about. "Kris? You all right?" He asked in concern, now moving closer to her.

"Wh-what was that? What was the man's name again?" Kris asked uncertain but clearly afraid.

Frowning, Barricade slowly shook his head. "It was Sean McCourie." He answered.

Kris' mouth fell before she stumbled back and then slowly dropped to her knees, resting her back against the counter. She was definitely in shock. She almost didn't hear Barricade shout her name as he quickly bent down beside her. She didn't see Kylee and Jake run in after the commotion. She just stared in shock at nothing.

"Kris! Are you malfunctioning?! Are you hurt?! Answer me!" Barricade cried out placing his hands on her shoulders.

Kris looked up at him in shock. "Th-that's impossi-impossible, Barricade. His name couldn't have been Sean! Sean is dead! He has been for seven years!" She cried, tears in her eyes.

Barricade gaped at her, stunned. "You know him?" He asked before quickly raising a hand and activating an image in it of a man, the man that Starscream had sent in the files. "Is this him? Do you know him?"

Kris gasped softly before clapping a hand over her mouth as tears sprang to her eyes. She couldn't believe it. "Se-Sean...that's Sean." She whispered in shock.

Barricade frowned before closing his palm and deactivating the image. He understood now. Agent Sean McCourie was the same as Kris' obvious Sean. "Who is he?" He asked gravely.

"My...my brother. I...I was a foster child when I was a kid. Sean's family was my foster family." Kris said weakly. They took me in and Sean became my brother. He...I never liked him in the beginning. He was just way too cheerful and welcoming. But...eventually, he became a brother I needed." She sighed wiping tears from her eyes. "I thought he was dead. I was told he had died. How could...?"

Shaking his head, Barricade wrapped his arms around her and helped her stand up. "The organization he worked for did that with its Agents. Prime and his Autobots told us when we joined them. The Department uses agents who faked their deaths so they wouldn't have any connections to anyone." He explained. "He probably did it to protect you or something."

Kris sighed, rubbing her forehead. She just didn't understand it. "How...how do you know it was him they found? Did they...find his body?" She asked weakly.

Barricade nodded. "According to Starscream, he was still barely alive when they found him. But he died shortly after. Screamer said he was being used in some experiment for the Department. I won't go into details though. You don't need to hear that." He told her firmly.

Kris slowly nodded, looking thoughtful. The wheels were turning in her head. She was sure Barricade wasn't going to like it but she couldn't just do this by herself. She heaved a deep sigh before looking at him, seriously. "Barry, take us with you. Take me and the kids with you, Soundwave and Prowl. Please?" She said in a pleading way.

"Kris," Barricade began in warning. "You don't know what you are asking. It will be dangerous, even if we are just going back to the Autosticks' base. You go with me, you and the kids, you possibly enter a war you shouldn't. It is already risky enough for me to be partners with you." He told her seriously.

Kris nodded as she shared a glance with Jake and Kylee. "I know. But being with you is already risking us, Barry. You are a part of our family now. You are our Guardian. So you have to guard us. Where you go, we will go." She said sternly.

Kylee and Jake nodded as they immediately agreed, looking determined. They wanted to go where ever Barricade went. They were not about to lose him now that they had him.

Venting deeply, Barricade nodded. He knew how they felt. He now had humans he cared about, and if what the Autobots were right, the Department would target anyone that meant anything to his kind. It would mean the Department would target Kris and the kids. So he wasn't about to let them out of his sight, where he couldn't protect them. "All right. Pack your stuff, but only clothes and maybe some pictures and personal belongings. I don't know when we will be back. I will have Soundwave make the plans of what to do about work and school." He told them.

Kris nodded sharply before looking at the kids. "Kylee, Jake, pack up. We're leaving." She told them firmly.

Both of the kids were quick to listen.

"Kris, you do realize that this could be extremely dangerous, right? Allowing you into the loop can be dangerous." Barricade said in warning.

Kris looked back at him, smiling tightly. "You're not going to change our minds, Barry. I know it will be dangerous. Unpredictable things might happen. That is just like being a cop in Las Vegas is like. You never know what will happen. You never know if you will go out to do good for the public and you will never know if you will ever come back alive. Life is a war, Barricade. You have to fight for something to achieve it. There will be battles that you don't want to fight but have to because it has to be done. For your own good. Whether it be every day stuff, like finding a job in this economy or trying to keep your family together. Protecting them from harm. Life is a battle that you have to fight every single day. You might get tired from fighting, but...it will be worth it in the end. My kids and I were already at war with every day stuff. With each other, with Dirge Xander, with John. With the bullies who picked on Jake. Kylee's abusive ex." She said in a deep tone. "But the one thing that made us win our battles was you entering our lives. You have done so much for us, and now it's our turn to do it for you. Where you go, we will go. I will fight right alongside you, Barricade. You, Soundwave, Prowl, the Autobots and the Decepticons."

Barricade gaped at her for a long moment before he smiled and nodded as he reached for her hand and pulled her into an embrace. "That was deep. You could have changed Megatron's stupid processor with talk like that. Too bad you weren't around when this war began. You could've ended it before it started." He remarked before kissing her on top of her head. "All right, let's roll..." he cut himself off with a grimace and a groan.

Kris frowned up at him. "What?" She asked in confusion.

"Damn that Prime and his stupid quotes of nobility. I almost said roll out. That his fragging quote." Hr grumbled.

Kris just laughed.

The three Cybertronians met up at the edge of the city, ready to head for the Autobot Base. It only surprised Barricade to see that both Prowl and Soundwave had passengers like him. Steven was sitting in Prowl's passenger seat with a big duffle bag in the back. He waved at Barricade, Kris and the kids when they approached.

"You're going too?" Kris asked as she leaned out of Barricade's window.

Steven nodded as he shrugged lazily. "I already put someone in charge of the Department. I am not about to let Prowl take off without me watching his back. Seems the same with you, huh?" He asked looking the family of three over.

Kris nodded, smiling as she rubbed Barricade's door fondly. "Yup. Us too." She looked over at Soundwave just as his door opened to reveal Greg. "You too?" She asked Greg.

Greg snorted as he leaned against Soundwave's door and nodded. "He tried leaving me behind but I wouldn't let him. I kind of locked myself in one of his compartments when he tried to make me get out of him and refused to let him leave me. Believe me, he's not happy about it. He could try and leave me but I warned him that I would follow you guys all the way back to the base if I had to. Prowl managed to convince him to letting me go. I can be pretty useful around their base. I am a hacker and Communications specialist after all. And according to Prowl, they have some top notches back at the base but they could use more help. So it's mostly Prowl that's letting me go back with them." He explained.

Kris snorted, shaking her head. She could trust Greg to be able to talk his way into things. He was a smart kid after all. Really smart. So she had no doubt that he would fit in with Barricade and the others. She frowned, looking around, expecting to see someone else. "What about Max? Isn't she coming...?" She was asking.

There was a sudden air of thick grief as Greg shook his head. He even glanced at the largest Decepticon, who had stiffened on his wheels. It was clear he was not happy about hearing Max's name all of a sudden. "She isn't coming. You'd have to ask Soundwave about that one." The young adult remarked heavily.

All eyes turned onto Soundwave, looking concerned. They had expected him to bring Max along but...she wasn't coming. So why wasn't she going with them back to the base? Did Soundwave ask her to go but she denied him because of other obligations?

"Hey, Wave? Why ain't Max coming? Didn't she want to...?" Barricade started asking.

But Soundwave began rolling away, not saying a word. He was obviously not going to explain why Max wasn't coming. It was obvious that he was upset about it but he wasn't about to say. Everyone could see that, as well. They knew something must have happened and it might have been something pretty bad. They wanted to pry and find out what happened but they figured that if Soundwave wanted to talk about it, he would. So they would give him some space and wait till he was ready to tell them what happened between himself and Max Tanner.

But he never did as they drove all the way back to the Grand Canyon where the base was awaiting for more craziness to start.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is the End of Barricade's Community Service-Requiem For Barricade. It's continued in The Day That Never Comes, which some has already read. The continuation of Barricade's relationship with Kris, Kylee and Jake will be continued in the upcoming story; Shadow of the Day. I hope you all enjoyed this story. I enjoyed writing it. But it's not over yet. There's still a lot more to come soon.


End file.
